NFWYA Epilogue 100: Into the Fire
by ScarletCougar
Summary: 100 Zuko shorts that bridge the gap between two major FF's: Never Forget Who You Are & Long Road North . What happens to the characters, both canon and OC, through the space between ATLA Book 2 and Book 3? Also, key scenes that tie Book 3 into my FF world
1. Epilogue 1: Spirits Fall

_Author's Note:_

_This is a series called Epilogue 100. It will consist of 100 short chapters that bridge the gap between two major fanfics. It will contain excerpts of what happens to the character, both canon characters and OC (other characters) through the space between ATLA book 2 and Book 3, as well as key scenes throughout Book 3 that help tie my fanfic to the series and leads us into the next fanfics. Enjoy!_

_**Epilogue 1: Spirits Fall**_

The days flowed into weeks, winter into spring. The avatar remained hidden on a ship of the Southern Water Tribe, Chief Hakoda's ship. Sokka learned and discussed military strategy and shared some of his inventive and creative ideas with his father, other Water Tribe warriors and some Earth Kingdom officers that had joined them. Katara spent most of her time healing and caring for Aang, who still had not woken from the coma induced by the deep injury Azula inflicted upon him. The fleet collected refugees and other resistance fighters in their travels. They kept on the move in order to keep Aang safe. The world, however, believed that avatar was dead.

Fire Lord Ozai also believed, with delight, that the avatar was dead. His trusted daughter reported this herself, having witnessed it with her own eyes. The spirits and moral of the people around the world fell as hope was lost.

The Earth King, seeing the world for the first time and not from the pages of a censored university book, threw caution to the wind! He abandoned everyone and everything the first moment they landed to collect more people. He and his bear, Bosco, chose to walk the rustic world, see and experience what they can before all was completely lost.

The conquest of the Fire Nation was immanent.

Zuko knew it. The knowledge sat like stone cold coal in the pit of his stomach. He hated how people now looked upon him with certain recognition. The name Huo Long was a curse whispered on their lips. He wanted desperately to see his uncle, to see Mu-Tan, to see Faelin and Ty-min. He dared not. Azula kept far too close a watch on him. And if Azula was not there, Mai was. The people he loved were at least alive and safe. He would not risk them. And Mai? Sometimes Zuko wondered about where her loyalty actually lay.

She often invaded his nightly meditations, quietly sinking down behind him in pools of fabric and deadly knives. She would slide her arms very gently around him like he was a deeply wounded animal she actually cared about, if she cared about anything at wall. Zuko often wondered this. She would press her cheek against the back of his shoulder and hold him while he breathed through his chakras and watched the candle flames rise and fall in a soft rhythm. In an odd way, this comforted Zuko. At least one person wanted to be close to him. At least one person wanted to hold him.

It created confusion and inner conflict and frustration. The candles flames flared violently. Mai sat straight, releasing Zuko. Then she stood and silently walked out with an air of calm. Zuko had felt the betrayal of her body though. She had flinched. He hung his head for he had managed to push even Mai from him that night. Faelin's worry for him was a constant in the back of his mind. Part of him regretted binding his spirit to hers. _Be her Silver Circle Guardian and protect her._ The candles flared again in his futile frustration. _I am protecting her, aren't I? My sister knows nothing about her… or… our child. Faelin must be nearly three months along._ Remembering the pregnant woman who sometimes cared for Ty-Min, he wondered if Faelin's belly showed the proof of their child within yet. He buried his face in his hands, digging his fingers into his scruffy hair, still not quite long enough to tie back.


	2. Epilogue 2: First Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 2: First Conflict of Loves**_

The moon shone high in the sky as a thin sliver, barely giving light to the palace corridors. All was mostly quiet. One soul could not sleep with the demons in his dreams. He crept quietly through the halls. He almost walked into a Dai Li agent who merely nodded to him in passing. This walk would not go unnoticed. Zuko sighed for his failure, the twenty-seventh failure to visit his uncle. He walked there anyways just to spite whoever was watching him. Two guards, Fire Nation guards, stood talking outside Iroh's cell. He pressed his back against a wall, not rounding the corner yet, wanting to eavesdrop on these guards. Maybe he can ascertain the status of his uncle.

"I can't believe General Iroh is a prisoner now. I member of the royal family… Fire Lord Ozai's own BROTHER!" declared one guard mystified.

These men will be executed. Zuko was sure of it. If Azula heard what they were saying, she would doubt their loyalty and they would be executed just to make an example of them. He needed to silence them, yet not give away his own traitorous heart.

The other guard concurred sadly, "I know. I served under his command during the first siege. He was a great leader and a great man ---"

Zuko took a deep breath reminding himself of his royal status and using it poisonously, "You don't know what you are talking about. General Iroh is a TRAITOR to his country!" he yelled at them with condemnation. They tried to plead forgiveness from him. Azula would never forgive them. At least he could save their lives, at the expense of his own pride and honor. "GET BACK TO WORK!" Zuko bellowed with a short blast of fire from his fist to emphasize his command. The guards jumped back warily and resumed their duty in silence. Zuko walked away with a mix of shame and relief. _Would Uncle understand?_


	3. Epilogue 3: Second Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 3: Second Conflict of Loves**_

The breeze blew warm and gentle through the thin curtains of his palace chamber. He could not call it a room. It was more like a gilded cage and he wanted out. Zuko plotted as he breathes in meditation with Mai soaking up the comfort of the quiet space and company. He pictured the bald sifu who taught him so much about both the assassin's craft and being Silver Circle. He knew he had much still to learn. He discreetly fondled the silver bracelet that Mu-Tan had given him when he swore his vows. The words, Qin Maru, were engraved upon it.

"Where did you get that?" asked Mai in her barely interested deep voice.

He tugged his sleeve down to cover it. "It was a gift."

"For winning at the competitions? I was there, you know. I watched. You were very good. I didn't know you knew Earth Kingdom martial arts." She returned to resting her cheek against the back of his shoulder.

Zuko was sure she was digging for information for Azula. He ignored her question. "When you are in exile and among the enemy, you pay attention and learn and blend in."

"Uh-hunh." It was noncommittal. Mai didn't really want to know the story behind it all.

Zuko returned to his plotting in the silence of his meditation, waiting for Mai to leave for her own room. He worried sometimes if she would one night choose not to leave. He banished that thought from his mind as something to be dealt with later if it ever happens. Mai did finally leave. He figured she was bored. _When did I get so patient? My uncle would be amazed. I should thank both him and Mu-Tan for this._

He resolved to thank Mu-Tan for much more if he managed to find him this evening. Remembering his lessons, Zuko removed his clothes and dressed in his dark green sleeping clothes, pulling black socks over the bottoms of his pants. He mixed the soot from the fire place with a bit of oil and rubbed it over every bit of exposed skin, his wrists and hands, his neck and ears, and his face. He peered out the window and climbed carefully onto the ledge. Four floors was a long drop. Stretching as far as he could, he reached the 3 floor Fire Nation Banner that hung down the palace wall. Gripping it firmly, he climbed down and dropped the final story. Looking back up to his window, his uncle's words from long ago echoed back in his mind. _You never think things through!_ He hadn't considered how he was going to get back into his room. Too late now. He crouched suddenly as the scheduled Dai Li patrol walked by. Zuko was just another shadow in the bushes.

He crept around the palace perimeter waiting for the Dai Li to provide him with an opening to dash across the courtyard. He stood, ready to run, muscles tense like a pigmy panther. He never made it. A stranger's foot caught him between his, off-balancing him. He was spun and pinned face first to the wall. A stone glove shackled each hand firmly, preventing him from firebending. Stone rose from the garden he stood in and locked around his feet. An icy blade pressed warningly against his throat. He closed his eyes. It was over. The Dai Li had him. He wondered what he would say to his younger sister and what lecture and punishment she would meet out on him. He prayed it was a hired assassin to kill him instead. He prayed the blade with slide and spill his blood. He prayed the ghostly hands of a red-haired beauty would pull him through the wall and save him.

"Whose side are you on?" demanded an almost familiar whisper.

Zuko's mind raced. He knew he hadn't much time before the next Dai Li Patrol. This was not Dai Li. He chose his words carefully. "Qin Maru."

The blade vanished in a quick flick of the wrist. The stones released Zuko from his rudimentary shackles. He turned to face his captor uncertain whether he wanted to hit him and hug him. Mu-Tan pressed Zuko's back against the wall. "What in the nine hells are you doing out here then? If you are trying to see her, don't. Don't you dare put her in that kind of danger."

"Is she… how is she?" Zuko almost pleaded.

Mu-Tan relaxed. "She is doing well, walking some on her own now. The baby is starting to show." Zuko's legs went to jelly and he lost the ability to stand. Mu-tan caught him and eased him to sitting. "Zuko. She's ok. So is Ty-Min. Travahar is ready, but there are too many Fire Nation here. We need information. We need assistance."

"You need my uncle," Zuko want to say something else. _I need my uncle._

"I can't get him out," confessed Mu-Tan. "I need to know something else. Did you kill the avatar?"

Zuko was hurt by the doubt in Mu-Tan's voice. He understood though. He had hunted the avatar for so long; it was in his chakra rites. He had still held contempt for the avatar in the end. But, "no… I didn't."

"Then it was Azula." Mu-Tan spoke with finality.

Zuko tried to clarify, "She took him down."

Mu-Tan caught the hint, "so you think he lives?" Dared he hope?

"Katara is with him." Zuko was sure the avatar lived. He hoped he did. The avatar was the only one now who could stop this war, he understood this now. "I'll do what I can from here. But I am watched… a lot."

Mu-Tan dragged Zuko back along the palace perimeter as they avoiding the patrolling Dai Li. There the two warriors parted, below Zuko's room. Mu-Tan had made small notches in the wall up to Zuko's room. Zuko wanted to just run away. He wanted to escape back into exile and be with Faelin. He knew his destiny though. It was not to be with her, not yet. With great resignation, he climbed back into his room.


	4. Epilogue 4: Third Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 4: Third Conflict of Loves**_

In one of his more brooding moods, Zuko stormed to the throne room of the palace in Ba Sing Se seeking his sister. She lounged lazily on the throne like she was the Fire Lord himself. Zuko clenched his fists. _She is ruling Ba Sing Se more strictly than my father… then Ozai rules the entire Fire Nation._

"Zu Zu!" Azula smiled sweetly. "What a pleasant surprise. I've just finished arranging for our trip back to the Fire Nation."

Taken aback, Zuko was uncertain how to respond. Quick thinking schooled his words, "But you're the leader of Ba Sing Se now. You would really give up control of the city?" He tried hard not to hope too much. If she left, Travahar and Mu-Tan would stand a good chance of seizing it back and putting Travahar on the throne.

"Oh I'll still be in control, brother. The Dai Li are loyal to me." She walked with cat-like grace toward Zuko. ""the city will be well protected, don't you worry. And we can deliver our traitorous uncle to the Fire Nation."

The opportunity could not be better. He could stage an attack with Mu-Tan's help and free his uncle on the way. If he could stay, he could plan. If he could stay, he could be with Faelin. He straightened his shoulders stubbornly, "you don't need me for that. I'll stay here." _I'll stay here and finally get to see the woman I love and have sword to protect. I'll finally get to see my… children. Yes, I can consider Ty-min my daughter. I can be with Faelin when she gives birth. Yes, I'll just… stay. I don't want to see Ozai._

Azula rolled her eyes and sighed heavily at her brother's ridiculousness. "Zuko, Now that we've defeated the avatar, Father will welcome you as a hero. You'll be the prince again and have your old life back." She could hardly believe he was floundering now at the opportunity of going home. It was his one true deepest love, wasn't it?

"I already said, I'M NOT GOING WITH YOU!" He stormed away in his struggle to manage something in his life around his sister iron control. He hated her. His mood so very sour for missing Faelin so much, but he couldn't tell Azula that.

Azula hatched a plot in her head. It was a plot to tie Zuko back into his old love for Mai. Why not? The two seemed to be starting to get close again. A little nudge in the right direction and Zuko would surely get on the boat to the Fire islands. Not being very good in the realm of love herself, Ty-Lee would her best accomplice.


	5. Epilogue 5: Fourth Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 5: Fourth Conflict of Loves**_

Azula and Ty-lee's dinner plan for Zuko and Mai flailed miserably. They were caught spying behind the bushes. Mai gave them both a cold glare and suggested to Zuko that they go elsewhere. Still hating his sister for the incident earlier that day, he thought it Mai's idea was great.

They walked through the streets of the Mpper Ring. Mai didn't seem to care where they went, so Zuko took her on the stone tram into the Middle Ring. From that high vantage point, he could see that Azula had earthbenders taking down the great Wall of Ba Sing Se. Somehow, for some reason that broke his heart. These people would never be able to stand against Ozai now, no matter what.

Mai and Zuko walked through the Middle Ring markets and restaurants. At least she was not bored; however, she did seem disgusted by everything around her. "Ugh… Do people actually eat any of this?"

"It's not so bad… once you get used to it." Zuko felt offended on the behalf of the people he befriended here.

"Lee? Is that you?" An eager voice shrilled from one of the stalls. "LEE! I can't believe it! It's been so long!" Jin skipped over to see the young man she had once kissed in the Lower Ring, dressed now like a noble and not a refugee after all.

Zuko cringed as the heat of embarrassment drove across his cheeks. "Lee?" mused Mai. "Zuko immediately wished a Dai Li agent could bury him in the stones forever.


	6. Epilogue 6: Fifth Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 6: Fifth Conflict of Loves**_

While Jin's chatty curiousness was refreshing, in Mai's presence it was humiliating. Jin didn't seem to realize he was the dreaded exiled prince. For the briefest seconds he felt normal again. Then, there was Mai standing next to him to remind him how not normal he was. He partly wanted to keep Jin in ignorant bliss and partly wanted to make Mai feel as uncomfortable as he felt.

"Who's this?" asked Jin realizing that perhaps after all these months, Lee might have gone and found himself another girlfriend. Her shoulders sagged from the thought.

"Oh… Jin… Um… This is… just my friend. My friend from the CIRCUS," he lied badly. "Yeah… She's the knife thrower." He almost wanted to slap himself in the face when Jin's eyes grew wide as she absorbed this lie as truth.

Mai was not going to be made fun of. She narrowed her eyes into knife sharp slits then grinned. "Here, I'll show you." She pushed Zuko over to a water fountain. "Go stand over there, LEE."

Jin was full of glee. She laughed, "I hope she's better at throwing knives than you are at juggling!"

Mai pondered a moment then took one of the gross looking fish from the nearby stand and fwapped it onto Zuko's head. "There, much better." She smirked remembering the time she stood in front of a fountain with an apple on her head while Zuko was to take a shot at her with his firebending. She broke off a thin sturdy icicle from the fish stand and took aim. "You see," she instructed Jin, "it's all in the wrist."

Zuko tensed, but he trusted Mai's aim. She never missed. Her skill with knives and darts rivaled any elite assassin. It was something she took up because she was bored in her family's home. A quick flick and the icicle flew true, piecing the fish on Zuko's head neatly.

Jin clapped, "WOW! That was amazing!"

"You want to try? Asked Mai with a sly grin as she handed Jin another icicle and settled another fish on Zuko's head.

Zuko did not want to look the coward in front of these two women. But as the icicle flew from Jin's hand, he dodged for his life. It shattered on the fountain spout. His foot caught the edge of the fountain rim. The world tipped suddenly. SPLOOSH! Zuko sat soaked in the fountain as the water spilled and gurgled over his head.

Jin felt sorry for Zuko and fled. Mai however felt no remorse as she leaned one hand on the fountain's edge. "Now we are even." She laughed and skipped off down the street.

"Are you CRAZY!? You could have gotten me killed!" Zuko chased after her.

She slowed her light dash so he could catch up to her. Her smile still softening her features with a tiny laugh still in her voice, "Whatever… Lee…"

"Just stop for a sec!" he caught her by the arm surprised at the playful grin she still wore. It was like playing tag with her as children. She had a crush on him then and he on her. She had moved away not long after the apple and fountain incident and grew very introverted and cold. But this, this was a different Mai. This was the Mai he liked and was once friends with. "You finally seem to be ENJOYING yourself." He released her and turned away as she blushed. "I've missed seeing this side of you."

Mai stepped up behind him, resting one hand on his back. "Well, a lot has changed since the days when I used to throw mud in your face." She coaxed him to turn and face her, with her hand on his unscarred cheek. "But not everything's changed" she whispered. She leaned in and closed the couple inches between them, pressing her lips gently to his in a brief kiss.

His heart pounded in a thousand confused emotions.


	7. Epilogue 7: Sixth Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 7: Sixth Conflict of Loves**_

He walked back through the streets, sat on a stone tram, and rode a cart back to the palace in Ba Sing Se with Mai on his arm. She regarded most things with distaste or disinterest. Zuko wondered how she lived. Faelin lived every moment as though it is vibrantly full of mystery and passion. Sometimes he found that a bit exhausting. _Faelin…_

_A flash of red fire. Zuko turned to see a hooded figure walking down an alley into a dark district of the Lower ring. The hooded figure had a small bit of fiery red hair exposed. Shinzui… could it really be her? "Don't go down there," Jin advised. "It's dangerous." Shinzui. The name he gave Faelin. Mystery. She was a mystery to him, A flash of fiery red hair and a deep love for life that touched him. Zuko could not forget her. He could not let her go. He fought carefully every step of the way to get to her and to keep her safe. He almost failed. Shinzui… almost lost a beautiful mystery. He fought within himself and challenged himself and strove to become something more. Quin Maru. Silver Circle. Sworn now, vowed, and bound by spirit to the woman he loved. Faelin. He could feel her now, Resting and somewhat content. He missed her. He could almost picture her smiling at Ty-min. _

"Zuko? Did you hear me?" asked Mai. "I asked if you were going to come with me tomorrow on the ship back home."

Zuko frowned a moment. Mai also loved him. And he could not deny the odd flutter within him when she was close. She was dangerous and also mysterious. His eyes met hers as he pondered his answer, caught between Mai and Faelin. _Faelin carries my child within her, my son or daughter. Ty-Min depends on me to be her father. I have to protect Faelin. And Uncle, he is here too. If they all leave, I can arrange to have him freed on the way. We can all stay here and stage that coup we wanted. Free Ba Sing Se from my father._ "No."

Mai released his arm as the cart pulled to a halt. "It's because of that girl. You have changed. You love someone else. She is just a stupid peasant. Fine. Stay." She walked into the palace abandoning him as though he were filthy laundry.

Zuko shook his head. This was so confusing. Not as confusing though as Mai's return to his room during his meditation. She again settles behind him and wrapped her arm around him. He shifted and pulled her in front to sit facing his candles. He didn't know why he did it. He just did. He settled her in his lap and held her. Hoped that maybe she would be an ally one day. Although, maybe she would just kill him because he did love someone else. Or, Azula could have put her up to all this and he could be falling into a trap. He breathed. The candle flames rose and fell quietly. Mai leaned back into him. He could feel where she kept darts and other sharp deadly instruments for throwing, all hidden under thick fabric. She turned her face and kissed him. _Nope, this is more confusing!_


	8. Epilogue 8: Seventh Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 8: Seventh Conflict of Loves**_

Dawn rose with remarkably warm fire. Like any other firebender, so did Zuko. He breathed deep of the warmth that streamed in from the small split in the curtains. As he opened his eyes, his whole body tensed in wariness. Mai was curled with him in his bed. The mental fogginess of dawn filled his head and blocked the memories of how she got there. He didn't want to wake her. He didn't want her to kill him out of being startled. He didn't want to give up the feeling of her completely at peace on his shoulder.

They had kissed last night. They had more than just kissed. Zuko was grateful neither of them were unclothed. He gave Mai's brow a small chaste kiss and passed his fingers through her sleek black bangs. Then he carefully slipped out of the bed without disturbing her.

He lit a candle and breathed through his chakras, begging forgiveness of Faelin for his indiscretion. He moved through his Shaolin fire moves without any firebending. With a brief glance back to the sleeping Mai, he continued working through the martial forms of the Hung Gar he nearly had mastered under Mu-Tan's training and with Travahar. He paused to catch his breath and think. The Bagua moves were still fresh in his mind, and made him sweat with their fast turns and dodges. It made sense now how the avatar could avoid him so easily. The most difficult moves were those of Tai Chi with the emphasis on slow fluidity. He didn't know many of those, just the first set. He still struggled with the images of Katara using Tai Chi with such fast fierceness. He found these moves the most complicated. They made no sense to him. Giving up for now he sat and breathed through his chakras with his candle again. His clothes now sticking to him with his sweat. He extinguished his candle flame and took a brief shower dressing in clean clothes.

When he returned to his palace bedroom, Mai was already gone. He stood a long while staring at the rumpled blankets and the depression left behind by her once peacefully curled form in his bed. She had left. He wasn't sure if he was disappointed or relieved.


	9. Chapter 9: Final Conflict of Loves

_**Epilogue 9: Final Conflict of Loves**_

From a guard, Zuko learned the time that his uncle was going to be moved. Noon. He cursed under his breath. That was not enough time to get word to Mu-Tan for help. He marched through the palace halls weighing the risk. He wrote a cryptic note and gave it to a runner with a gold coin. _Dragons sail at noon!_ He hoped it made sense. He hoped Mu-Tan would understand. He grumbled at how his uncle was likely much better at this subterfuge messaging. With a sigh he wandered to get something for breakfast.

"Zuzu! Why do you insist on wearing those embarrassing clothes!" Azula rolled her eyes gesturing at Zuko's noble Earth Kingdom clothing. "Could you please wear something more suitable? You are a prince of the Fire Nation… or supposed to be."

Zuko gritted his teeth. Earth Kingdom clothes were much more comfortable than Fire Nation royal robes. "Exactly. I am a prince of the Fire Nation. I will wear whatever I want."

"Fine… at least it isn't peasant clothes." Mai and Ty-Lee joined them for breakfast. Azula gave them one of her trademark grins. Ty-Lee greeted them all with a bubbly hello and good morning. When Mai didn't greet Azula as she sat next to Zuko, Azula's grin faded. However, she said nothing. She needed this to work. She needed Zuko to meet their father. She needed her scapegoat, just in case. She needed Zuko there to take the fall so she could be named heir, publicly. She needed more patience. This was a plan that would take time and that frustrated her. She preferred quick and efficient.

As everyone prepared for the carts to the ship, a Dai Li agent discreetly passed a small note to Azula. _Dragons sail at noon!_ She frowned and asked who it was for. The agent apologized that the boy died without revealing the name. Azula cursed the stubbornness of the Earth Kingdom. It didn't matter so much. She felt at least satisfied that her brother's note never reached whoever it was destined for. More than ever, she hated her brother and his traitorous ways. A plot hatched in her mind as a chained old man was escorted into the prison cart.

Mai coaxed Zuko to at least come to see her off. They walked arm in arm at the docking area of the Fire Nation vessel that would head to the Royal Palace of the Fire nation. At a distance, Ty-Lee clapped her hands, standing next to Azula, "Awwww! Azula look! The two lovebirds have gotten back together. They look TOTALLY adorable!" Azula thought she would vomit. Then she nodded to one of the Dai Li who had a small trunk filled with Zuko's extremely meager belongings. He carried it onto the ship.

Zuko stood with Mai feeling like the rope pulled by two strong forces, Faelin and Mai. He stared at the ground unwilling to meet Mai's eyes to disappoint her. She rested her hand on his scarred cheek till his eyes met hers, "So… Are you coming with us? With **me**?"

Zuko winced, "I'd like to, Mai. I'm just not sure…"

Azula claimed this opportunity to disrupt them as Iroh was marched by guards up the ramp into the ship. Distain and false empathy dripped from her words, "Poor, Poor Uncle…" She walked passed Mai and Zuko. "I wonder if he'll even survive the trip home." She turned her back on them as Mai glared daggers into the back of Azula's neck. With a casual wave, Azula said farewell, "Well, we must be going. I suggest you bid farewell to your girlfriend, little brother." Mai nearly attacked on Zuko's behalf. Azula had been so rude to call Zuko little brother. A side glance at Zuko watching Iroh vanish into the ship and she knew Zuko missed that. Mai understood in that moment that Azula was aiming to claim the throne in Zuko's place. It interfered with her own chances of being lady to the Fire Lord.

Zuko's heart raced. The choice was suddenly not between Faelin and Mai, but between Faelin and his uncle, the only man who was father to him. "No," he stated finally. "I… I'm coming with you." Faelin was safe with Mu-Tan. He could feel that. But his uncle… might not be safe. Azula might not care if he is delivered to Ozai dead. Zuko decided it was better to go and make sure his uncle lived.

From the ramp, followed by Ty-Lee, Azula shrugged, "Do what you want, Zuzu. It's YOUR decision." As if it ever was.

Mai took Zuko's hand and lead him up the ramp into the ship, determined to win him over completely and replace the Earth Kingdom peasant she believed he was in love with.


	10. Chapter 10: Child's Lullaby

_**Epilogue 10: Child's Lullaby**_

As the days shifted to weeks and the weeks stretched to Spring, Mu-Tan reassured Faelin that Zuko was well. Zuko and Iroh were in a bit of a bind, but both alive and Zuko was on a mission and would return as soon as he could. Mu-Tan watched the boats sail that day, having observed the struggle and failure of Zuko to stay behind. He wished he had known sooner. Mu-Tan would have arranged for assistance, they might have been able to take advantage of this situation and get the two fire dragons (Zuko and Iroh) away. He hoped he could truly trust Zuko. He knew the bond between Silver Circle Guardian and Priestess. Faelin's survival ensured Zuko's loyalty. Buy, did Zuko have the strength to actually fight these people, his father and his sister. Mu-Tan doubted it. Even though Zuko succeeded in his chakra rights, overcoming his initial fears of them, it did not mean he had the strength or skill to beat them openly. He did not voice this to Faelin though. The fire haired priestess with the honey-colored tattoos was still badly wounded, healing, and pregnant.

Mu-Tan taught his classes in the dojo, now with Travahar's help. Hwa Lan and Travahar roamed the city of Ba Sing Se carefully meeting members of the White Lotus and arranging a network of informational exchange. In the basement of the dojo, they planned a coup. They only needed a significant amount of the Fire Nation army and Dai Li to leave the city or die. They also needed perhaps some careful sabotage. A letter was written and sent through secret ways to a young assassin in place in the Fire Islands, Kozu daughter of Ling. Ling quietly assisted in the older classes at the dojo.

One night, after Zuko had left Ba Sing Se for the Fire Islands, Mu-Tan sat in the dark like a dangerous shadow on the roof of the dojo. It shamed him to see the walls of Ba Sing Se gone. He sorted his troubled thoughts on how the war was progressing and how poorly things seemed at the moment. A wailing shriek was heard within the dojo and Mu-Tan nearly earthbended through the roof into the room below to save the screamer when he realized who it was.

He recognized the crying of the child, Ty-Min. She had had some nightmares since Zuko had left. This was another night fraught with them. He sighed heavily. His muscles relaxed a little at a time when a familiar tune was hummed by a less familiar voice. Mu-Tan closed his eyes and sank into the memory. His beloved hummed this tune three times before softly singing the words. He priestess tattoos glowing faintly as she stroked their son's cheek, soothing the boy into sleep. He breathed a sad long breathe for the sense of loss he then felt. They were both gone now.

Inside the room, little Ty-min had woken screaming from a nightmare and crumbled into tears in Faelin's arms. She cried for her mother. She cried for her father. She begged to see "Lee" and asked when he was coming home and why she could not see him. She asked if he went to war too like her other father and if he was going to die like her other father. She didn't want him to die. She wanted to see him NOW! Faelin understood how this young girl felt. She missed Zuko too and wanted desperately to see him. She knew he was doing something important and prayed for his safety. She patted her bed to encourage the girl into her bed. Ty-min dragged her blanket with her and climbed in, still sniffling. Faelin traced her fingers through the child's hair and began to hum. It was the same tune she hummed to a similar orphan when she was on a Fire Nation exiled ship seeking the safety that Zuko had promised her and her small temple's survivors. She hummed it over and over as her priestly tattoos glowed the soft golden of sunlight through honey. The song she could not yet sing, uncertain about trying to speak yet. She had tried a little here and there after Travahar had metalbended the silencing bolt out of her tongue, but she was not ready to sing a full chant of tranquility. When Ty-min's breathing shifted into steady long intakes and exhales, she kissed the child's brow and return to sleep herself.

Far across the ocean, Zuko lay awake in the room given to him for the journey. Resonating in him was a soft hum as he could feel Faelin soothing another child into slumber, smoothing away nightmares. Zuko reached under his pillow and pulled out his tiny tin flute and played the tune delicately. Mai paused outside his door. He had been so melancholy that day, more so than usual. She rested her hand on the door but didn't open it this time. She let him have his solitude as she listened to the gentle lullaby played on his flute. She wondered when he had learned to play so beautifully.


	11. Chapter 11: Coming Home

_**Epilogue 11: Coming Home**_

Staring out at the rough sea and grey storm clouds, they felt like reflections of his soul. The wind tossed the edges of his hair and his clothes. "Aren't you cold?" asked Mai as she broke Zuko's brooding focus. He shifted his weight, but didn't really look over his shoulder. She stepped closer, a tender smile on her lips.

Zuko wondered if Mai would understand. "I have a lot on my mind. It's been so long. More than three years since I have been home. I wonder what's changed. I wonder how I've changed."

Mai falsely yawned and brushed off Zuko's brooding. "I just asked if you were cold. I didn't ask for your whole life's story." Zuko nearly turned away in anger when she wrapped her arms over his shoulders and turned his face to hers. "Stop worrying." She didn't want to insult him. Just, didn't want him to keep focusing on the things that tore him to pieces inside. She pressed her lips to his briefly and then walked away, hoping that maybe he would follow.

Zuko however remained at the rail of the ship overlooking the rough sea. Betrayal danced in his heart every time he kissed Mai, but so did a little excitement. He tapped the metal of the rail and sighed heavily. His uncle was chained below in this cold metal. He wanted to check on him. He wanted reassurance. He wanted… forgiveness. Zuko hung his head. _Will any of them understand? Am I as lost as I was before? Uncle… Faelin…_ The sea churned and a drizzle fell from the sky to soak him. He looked up from the wet rail, water streamed down his face. The light from hot volcanoes lit the distance as the Fire Islands were coming into view.

Only a few days later Zuko stood on the balcony of the palace. Loyal subject cheered his return. He was declared a hero. It sat like poisoned lead in his gut. It was a lie. He wondered if his father would believe it. The sun was warm and the heat from the nearby volcano stirred his memories. Too bad they were such sad memories involving his mother. _Maybe I'll be able to find her?_ Standing there listening to these people cheering, ignorant of the cruelties that have been enacted in their name, he hated being there. It felt wrong. It was not home. He was so far from Faelin that he could barely sense her. He worried whether it was their physical distance or if it was his inner betrayals. _Honor is the Law and Love if the Bond. I love her and our child to be. I just have to let everyone think I am loyal here. I can do this. Can't I? I can lie to Azula, right? Agni please… Let her not see the truth. _

He gazed out at the populous thinking how much of a lie this all was as Li and Lo, Azula's elderly twin tutors, recited the deeds of the fall of Ba Sing Se. The people cheered more. _There is no honor in that victory. None. They have no idea of the betrayals. _Zuko wanted to yell back at them for their idiocy. Instead he took a big breath and moved his thoughts through his chakras, gaining a little strength and balance from them. But would it be enough? _Why did I come back? Why am I doing all this? Will my father really love me? Will he be proud? It isn't about honor now. Actually, it is entirely about honor. This whole stinking war is dishonorable. That is why I am here. To somehow find out some truths, to disrupt my father's plans, to help forge a new destiny. To protect the ones I love. Free Uncle…_ He stood firm like the prince he was even if he felt ashamed of his current heritage. The people cheered, "Prince Zuko! HUO HUO HUO!"


	12. Chapter 12: A Father's Praise

_**Epilogue 12: A Father's Praise**_

The anxiety built in his stomach as he walked through the halls of the palace to the throne room. He stopped at the curtain. He pushed his Silver Circle wristband as far up his forearm as he could to hide it from his father. Swallowing down his fear, he sighed heavily. Beyond the red and gold insignia of the Fire Nation on those curtains would be his father. Taking another deep and resolute breath, he pushed past the curtain. _Everyone is counting on me… Faelin is counting on me… but to do what exactly? What am I to do?_

He faltered for just a second as he wrapped the noble air of a prince around him like a cloak and mask. It worked so well on lesser people. He hoped it would work on his father. His father sat behind a wall of fire, menacing in his posture. Zuko's breath caught and a trickle of sweat slipped icily down his spine. Last time he saw his father, it was during an Agni Kai and to end of a fire blast.

Each step was a chakra breath till he stopped at the appropriate distance where he knelt to one knee then the next and bowed his head to the floor before his father in respectful servitude. The silence stretched. Zuko could feel his father's eyes burning through him. _You are no longer my father. I am not the scared little boy you burned and banished so cruelly._

Ozai regarded him coolly, "You have been away for a long time. I see the weight of your travels has changed you." He stood and strode forward to the fire wall. "You have redeemed yourself, my son." He stepped casually through the flames and off the dais to Zuko. "Welcome home," he said almost expressionlessly.

Only then did Zuko raise his head, remaining seated in the kneeling meditation pose, hands still on the floor. He searched his father's eyes briefly for compassion, but found none. Zuko looked back to the floor as Ozai paced easily in front of his son. Zuko's heart betrayed him in the tiniest bit of a son's hope for his father to love him and felt pained by the dispassion he had seen on his father's face. _He doesn't love me. He doesn't care. I wonder if he cares about anything at all besides power. Azula is just like him. They are both mad._

"I am proud of you, Zuko. I am proud because you and your sister conquered Ba Sing Se. I am proud because when your loyalty was tested by your treacherous uncle, you did the right thing." Zuko stomach knotted at that betrayal too as he silently prayed his uncle would understand. "You captured the traitor. And I am proudest of all because of your most legendary accomplishment." Ozai circled Zuko like a predator stopping behind the young man. "You slayed the avatar."

Zuko tried not to flinch. His mind swirled in a frantic internal whirlwind of images of the fall of the avatar by Azula's lightening and of Katara retreating with the boy, of Katara touching Zuko's scar holding special spirit-touched water from the sacred pool in the Northern Water Kingdom. _It was a kingdom no matter what anyone thought._ _It was far too large to be a tribe, honestly. Surely, Katara would use that magical water to save Aang's life. She must._ Zuko refrained from looking at his father in case the truth was writing on his own face too clearly. "What did you hear?" Zuko dared to ask hands firmly on the tiles of the floor doing his best to steady his breath. He hopes his voice did not shake too noticeably. _Dammit. He still scares me. How will I ever face him like a man…?_

"Azula told me everything. She said she was amazed and impressed with your power and veracity… at the moment of truth." It was a lie. Zuko knew it. Azula always lies. Zuko wondered why Azula didn't claim the credit. _Why did she lie? WHY?! _

Anger fueled Zuko's courage here.


	13. Chapter 13: Azula Always Lies

_**Epilogue 13: "Azula Always Lies"**_

Once he was free of his father, Zuko stormed through the palace and into his sister's bedchamber. He didn't care about propriety, not like she ever respected his privacy before. "Why'd you do it?!"

Her lip curled up on one side in the family trademark smirk. She didn't even open her eyes yet as she coyly replied, "you're going to have to be a little more specific, Zuzu."

He stepped closer, but not too close. His sister was a poisonous viper as far as he was concerned. "Why did you tell father I was the one who killed the avatar?"

Still not yet opening her eyes and hoping that her brother would just go, she let her annoyance fill her comment, "Can't this wait until morning?"

Zuko clenched his fists, "It can't." _I need to know what you are plotting… I need to know for the world's sake._

Azula huffed, "fine." She opened her eyes and sat up. She regarded her nails as they help really more importance than her brother. "You seemed so worried about meeting Father regarding the avatar that I figured by giving you the credit, you'd have nothing to worry about."

His shoulders sagged and his fists unclenched. He could not believe his sister did something nice for him. "But… why?" he asked, stunned.

She slipped out of bed and smoothed her nightgown. "Call if a generous gesture," she said sweetly. "I wanted to thank you for your help. And I was happy to share the glory."

He called her on it. "You're lying." _Azula always lies,_ he reminded himself. She would never be happy sharing anything with Zuko.

She brushed past him shrugging, "If you say so."

Zuko narrowed his eyes at his sister's back, "You have another motive for doing so. I just haven't figure out what it is yet."

She turned and stretched, "Oh please. What would I have to gain? What could I possibly gain for letting father believe you defeated the avatar?" She tapped her lower lip as she walked back past her brother and patted his shoulder, "Unless," she paused to trail a sharp nail down Zuko's arm till it caught on his silver band at his wrist. She frowned briefly, "Somehow… the avatar was actually alive…" She grinned slyly as Zuko snatched his hand away from her as though her touch burned. Zuko's eyes widened a moment with realization. Azula spelled it out anyways, "All that glory would suddenly turn to shame and foolishness." She sauntered back to her bed. "But… you said yourself that was impossible." Zuko ground his teeth with his hatred of her. He turned and left her room. "Sleep well Zuzu," she called warmly after him with a fake smile that faded fast as she stared at the glint of that silver band wondering what that secret was and why she didn't know it.

Azula always lies, except this time. Zuko knew by the cold nausea he felt that she was not lying this time. If Ozai (for Zuko refused to think of him as his father anymore) found out that the avatar was alive (which Zuko believed was the case, or really hoped was the case), then Ozai's wrath would be much worse than the shame a scarred face and exile. Zuko's shame would be public since the news and false reasons of his return were made so very public. Something else nagged him, something about Azula. This felt like only the beginning of a much larger plot. He wondered how long he had. _Till the Day of Black Sun. I wonder if she knows about it. No, she can't know of it. She would have said something. Or my … or Ozai would have said something. It's only a few weeks away._ He tried to think more clearly, but his anger at Azula's plot clouded his judgment.


	14. Chapter 14: Spy

_**Epilogue 14: Spy**_

Destiny is a funny thing. Some swear that your destiny is predetermined. Others swear that you are its own creator. Destiny, however, would answer that is co-effort on behalf of the universe layout out possibilities and each being will to make choices through their experiences.

Destiny then landed a forlorn and wounded boy, burdened heavily with a sense of loss and betray and failure, upon the sacred Crescent Isle shores. The moon shone down upon the boy's face to cool his inner turmoil. Lava formed soft smooth ripples on the shore, likewise cooled by the moon-pulled tides. It warmed the body and soul of the boy who lay there. The volcano was a gentle yet constant stream of heat flowing with liquid rock past an old and crumbling temple.

Destiny is a funny thing. It never happens alone. So many people and things influence its manifestation.

Aang opened his eyes as a friendly and familiar flying lemur licked at his nose and the soft brown growth of his hair over his Airbender tattoos. Soon the faces of friends came into view and their arms wrapped reassuringly around him.

None of them saw the pigeon-hawk fly past them to its own destiny, a message clipped carefully on its leg. It landed in the temple and sought its usual delivery perch. A shadow snakes out slowly to retrieve the message and replace it with another. A gloved hand offered the pigeon-hawk some morsels of food. It took flight soon after, the tiny silver circle band on one foot tinkling with his hops on the ledge. The figure peered down the slope from the temple window and the group below then at the message and contract request. Silent and fast feet carried the avatar's spy through the temple and out another window to scale down the wall in the shadowed lee. There was far too little time to make it to the palace.


	15. Chapter 15: Silence

_**Epilogue 15: Silence**_

Azula raged with bits of flame and sparks of lightning as she passed. Her royal sleep robes swished in her long angry strides. She was too annoyed to dress yet. Her friends sat at a safe distance and listened to her. "I can't BELIEVE he has the gall to wake me in the middle of the night. I can't believe he dares keep a secret from me. Mai! You didn't tell me he wore some silver band at his wrist. What does it mean? It will tip the Fire Lord off that Zuko may not be wholly trustworthy."

"I thought you wanted the Fire Lord to not trust him so you can be named Heir," Ty Lee's bubbly tone crossed between statement and question. Mai shot her a deadly look. "What? It's true."

"Say that out loud again Ty Lee and you won't have to worry about me ever hanging you out over a fiery net waiting for you to fall to your death. My father will incinerate you where you stand, if he's lucky enough to get to you before I do." The room steamed with her anger. "Mai. Make him take it off. I don't want him having any ties to Ba Sing Se peasantry. Either he loves you or he betrays you by wearing another woman's gifts. Find out who she is. She has to die."

Mai rose gracefully from her bench, her cold expression like stone as she stepped into the hall to seek out Zuko. But, he was nowhere to be found. He still seemed to maintain this habit of sneaking out like an assassin in the night. She wondered how he learned to be so stealthy, especially when it came to vanishing in the middle of the morning when he should be out doing his usual morning training.

After tossing and turning most of the night from Azula's ominous words, Zuko could no longer stand it. He needed air. He needed guidance. His toes tingled with the numbness of his fears that sank to block his root chakra. He could see no way around Azula's plot. He flung off the thin bed sheet and dressed quickly. Air, he desperately needed to be outside of the palace. Donning a dark burgundy robe, he pulled up the hood and moved from shadow to shadow through the streets to the palace prison hold. The only way in was across a small bridge. He hesitated at the first few feet of the little bridge. A patrol guard looked down at the shadowy figure. "Hey you! Who goes there?" The figure turned and retreated into the shadows. Zuko's heart pounded with uncertainty. _What on earth would I say to him? What would he say to me?_

Later, moments after dawn Zuko made up his mind and was determined not to be stopped. Again he donned the dark robes and pulled up the hood. He was early enough that most people were not yet up. He watched the patrol guard and dashed across the bridge the moment the guard was not looking. He strode through the tower till he encountered the interior hall guard. The guard recognized him. "You again?!" He turned to Zuko, spear in hand and ready to fight. "Stop where you are!" he yelled warningly. Zuko lifted his head to look the man in the eyes. His golden eyes firmly held the guards brown ones. The guard backed up and lowered his spear, "Prince Zuko," he breathed with confusion.

Two quick moves and the guards spear clattered to the floor. Zuko pushed the guard against the wall and held him firmly there. The guard dared not strike royalty. That would cost him his own life. "I am going in for a visit. And no one is going to stop me. You… you are going to stand guard here and no one is going to know about this." Knowing that Zuko was a powerful firebender and that he was not a bender at all, the guard agreed, fear in his eyes. Zuko released him and walked on to his uncle's prison cell. He gritted his teeth at what he had done. _Fear… I made him fear me. Dammit._ This only added to Zuko's already very sour mood.

Inside the smelly cell, an old man sat upon a tattered tatami mat that was his only source of comfort beyond the terribly soiled and frayed robes he had from the tea shop. He looked so old to Zuko. So pathetic, more so than when they were begging for money. The light seemed to have vanished from his uncle's face. He remembered something his uncle had told him once. _Hope. Hope is the gift you give yourself_. Iroh seemed to have lost hope.

Zuko pushed back his hood, "Uncle? It's me." He could not stop the slight begging and shaking that tinged the edges of his words. Iroh merely turned his back on his nephew. Zuko hung his head. He knew he deserved to be rejected. He had hoped his uncle would understand. He thought … it didn't matter what he thought. Betrayal was betrayal. That lost the trust and faith in Zuko that was Zuko's only lifeline here in the islands. The silence stretched onward. "Uncle. You brought this on yourself. We could have returned together. You could have been a hero!" His anger for a variety of things twisted inside him. "I did what I had to do in Ba Sing Se. And you're a fool for not seeing it!" The silence continued. Zuko gripped a cell bar in one hand. "You are not going to say anything?" _Uncle please! Say something. Do something. Yell at me. Firebend. Blast your way out. ANYTHING!_ The silence only frustrated Zuko more. He yelled and kicked up the guard stool, punching into the wall with a flare of fire from his fist. He yelled at his uncle some of the more horrible things he had ever said to the kind father figure, pausing for a moment to see the reaction. Nothing. Zuko's shoulders sagged as he turned from his uncle knowing the old man's spirit was broken. Before he left the room, Zuko took a slow deep breath and heated the air as a kindness against the damp chill inside the cell. He wondered if his uncle even noticed. He slammed the door behind him as he left so the guard did not suspect him of trying to be nice to the traitorous prisoner.


	16. Chapter 16: Spied

_**A/N:**_

This chapter skirts the edge of lime. The Maiko ship fans will be happy. I am finding it hard to make these like little one-shots sometimes… to capture a single scene… I will try to do better in following chapters.

_**Epilogue 16: Spied**_

Zuko was sour all day. It was impossible for Mai to get close to him. Fed up with his brooding, she went about her own affairs and listened further to Azula growling quietly about her brother's secrets. "Mai, I thought you could get him to trust you. Aren't you going to do something?" Mai rolled her eyes and left the room. _Fine… I'll get your information._

It had been days since she snuck into Zuko's room. She preferred her own little noble's house on the grounds. It was a gift from her parents and offered her some privacy. Also, she could easily watch Zuko training privately. If she stood at the front window, she could see straight through the gate to the little turtle-duck pond where he sometimes just sat to feed them bit of bread or where he deliciously stripped to just his loose tie-pants and moved through a variety of martial arts forms that were both familiar and unfamiliar to her. The moves were the usual Fire Nation forms and the Earth Kingdom forms she witnessed while in Ba Sing Se. Then sometimes, there were other moves. Slow fluid movements that rocked back and forth gently like he made love to the shore of the pond. She wanted to be the air between them. Now she leaned against the wall outside his bedroom, arms crossed, debating whether to obey his wishes to "just leave him alone for a while" or whether to obey Azula's wishes to get answers by whatever means "even bedding him if you have to!"

The soft notes of that lullaby seeped through metal, stone and bone. Mai listened to Zuko playing his flute. She decided to let him calm himself before she would invade. Maybe, if she waited long enough for him to be mostly asleep, he would be easier to speak to. The notes finally trailed off into silence. Mai was much more patient than Azula. She waited. A servant or slave wanders by and was putting out most of the torches for the night. She waited more.

Finally when all was quiet, Mai silently opened Zuko's bedroom door. She thought to herself how nobles really should put lock on their doors to prevent assassins from entering. At least they closed their windows at night. Except Zuko. The gentle breeze tickled her cheek and she mentally cursed and vowed to reprimand Zuko fiercely for sneaking out again in the middle of the night. A slight shadow moved near the window. At first she thought it was Zuko sneaking out the window, but the figure was not as tall. A glance to the bed proved that Zuko was there asleep under his blankets. She twitched a wrist and dropped a knife into her palm. "Zuko." Her words were firm. Zuko sat up and she grabbed his hand and dragged him from bed. A glance back at the window showed no shadows. She hauled him grumbling out into the main hall of the royal wing and closed his door.

"What in all the—" he never finished as she slapped him.

"Shut up or I will kill you myself for your stupidity." His hands fisted at her words. She ignored his childish temper, "Never… never ever leave your window open at night. You are not in some farm where no one cares about their low peasant safety. You are in the royal palace. Nobles hire assassins all the time to deal with each other." He opened his mouth to say something but she put her bladed hand over his mouth. "You can thank me later for saving your sorry skin from the one that was in your stupidly open window." Her heart was pounding hard. He might have actually been killed by someone. That would have ruined Azula's plans, infuriating the princess. That would have ruined Mai's plans to rise to the throne as Lady to the Fire Lord. That might have simply ruined everything by killing Zuko. She refused to admit, even to herself, that that scared her more.

She lowered her hand and kissed him. Zuko was a mix of tired and confused and angry. He gripped her arms and turns her against the wall suddenly. Mai's eyes slid down his nearly naked body. His short tie pants hardly were decent, hardly hid anything at all really. Her second kiss caused them to hide even less. "I'll check your room and let you know if it is safe to come in." She pulled herself from his loosening grip no expression on her lips, but coyness in her eyes and a light blush on her cheeks. She slipped back into Zuko's room.

He leaned his brow on the cold stones of the hall while Mai moved through his bedroom and closed the windows. He entered to see her checking every possible hiding place. It dawned on him then that she too has had training as an assassin, like himself. She knew what to look for and he felt a little dumb for taking a risk he should have expected now being in the royal palace where most people hated him for one reason or another.

He let flame leap from a finger to a short candle to light the room for the night. "Mai. It's fine. I can protect myself." He raised an eyebrow as she removes her over robe, revealing her royal dress and the black straps holding some blades to her wrists. Then shifted uncomfortably where he stood as his shorts felt the tension of his betraying body. He turned away from Mai out of modesty.

Mai steps behind him and ran her hand down his bare back, pausing at each small scar he had there from various fights he had over the last few years in exile. His skin grew hot under her fingers as her lips twitched up mischievously. She trailed a finger down his arm to the silver band, "you know… you never did tell me where you got this and what it meant."

Zuko tried to slow the racing beats of his heart to no avail. He let Mai fondle the silver band at his wrist. _Qin Maru… I am a Silver Circle Guardian to a priestess…_ He clung hard to the thought trying to sense Faelin. He sensed almost nothing but the truth that she was alive. Nothing. _Maybe it is because she is far away…_

His thoughts almost scattered as Mai traced up his spine. He straightened his back almost arching it as she did. "I… I earned it," he stammered. "I earned it in a great set of challenges. Qin Maru. It's the logo of the dojo I trained in and fought for in the competition."

"Qin Maru," she repeated. "Silver Circle. I knew an assassins guild by that name. They worked off the mainland. Most of them are dead now." But she chose to remember that there must obviously be at least one in Ba Sing Se. She debated whether to tell Azula. She chose in the end to conveniently forget that tidbit of information. She pressed a warm cheek against Zuko's hot skin. This was better than watching him at dawn by the pond. Maybe it would not be so bad a method to get answers.

Zuko swallowed hard.

The shadow from the window edged carefully back along the wall to the window ledge and spied in. She licked her lips and envied the woman who almost caught her. She dropped to the ground and vanished in shadows. She would have to try again to see Zuko another night. Instead she aimed for the prison. There was a guard there that she wanted to feel the blood pulse out of his body till his heart stilled. The thoughts alone excited her and hurried her feet.


	17. Chapter 17: Distracting Heat

_**Epilogue 17: Distracting Heat**_

Zuko swallowed hard.

Mai's breath raised the tiny hairs on the back of Zuko's neck. She marveled at the slight ripple of his lean muscles as they tensed under her hand. There was a thrill in seeing so much power under her hands and almost in her control.

Zuko prayed that if he stayed still with his back to her long enough, she would get bored. Fire shot through his veins down his spine from the nape of his neck where she pressed her lips. It banished his earlier fears. It rushed down his legs and warmed even his feet. Then it rushed back up into his shorts causing him to almost groan.

"So you are Qin Maru?" Mai asked absently exploring each taught muscle in his back and shoulders.

"I am," he responded huskily.

"Are you any good?" She grinned to herself actually enjoying this interrogation.

"I am," he replied again.

She leaned against him from behind her words slightly moving the hair by his ear as she spoke, "Then don't leave the window open again."

His fists clenched at the verbal jab that sparked through the hot haze in his brain. He turned to retort at her and saw her eyes drop to the obvious bulge in his shorts and back up to his eyes. He swallowed again, the retort lost in her amused and coy smile. He wished fiercely that she would leave and stop teasing him. He didn't even realize she had drawn him a step at a time to the bed, not till she stopped and he pressed his body against her just a little, his breath catching along with her own.

"Do you plan to assassinate someone?" Her fingers trailed down the tight muscles of his abdomen suddenly curious about the male dagger hidden behind the thin fabric of his shorts.

Zuko stammered through his words, "N-no… It's not-not my destiny."

"Do you hate me Zuko?" She wanted to know the truth, but nearly died inside for having dared to ask. She wasn't ready for his answer.

His arm came around her waist as his eyes searched hers. His expression gentled with a frown of concern. His other hand cupped her cheek. "Gods, Mai. No… I don't hate you. I never have." He was rewarded by a flicker of relief in her eyes.

Her hand brushes low over his shorts unintentionally. He closed his eyes and sucked in a breath holding it to maintain his own self-control. She bit her lower lip watching him fight internally. Then slowly pressed her hand over that dagger to explore the grip and consider its power as she had ever dagger that came into her possession. "You never just let go, do you?" Her breath dancing hotly on his throat.

"Mai… stop…" he begged with the fraying threads of his coherent thoughts. His fingers gripping the back of her dress contradicted him pleading words. He needed her to leave. It took all his will to let her go, remembering a time on a rooftop where another pretty little assassin, Kozue was her name, had brought him to this edge.

Mai moved away from him with a dark look in her eyes, betrayed.

"Mai, I just can't."

She snatched her over dress and covered herself. She schooled her expression into a cold mask and turned to tell him he could go ahead and be assassinated.

"I respect you too much, Mai."

That too was an answer to an unasked question that she was not ready for. "Keep your windows closed at night from now on." She retreated from his room to recompose herself in the privacy of the night.


	18. Chapter 18: Assassin's Memories

_**Epilogue 18: Assassin's Memories**_

Mai carefully cleaned and sharpened each of her small darts in the darkness of her little living room. She pondered the evening. Zuko disarmed her with his words more effectively than Azula and with far more sincerity. She glanced out the window through the gate to the pond in the shadow of the clouded over moon. She could still feel Zuko's hot skin on her fingertips, slightly damp with the sweat of being aroused. She gripped one of her dagger. It fit less well in her hand than Zuko's. She threw it in her frustration. It thudded into the wood to the hilt.

"Qin Maru," she murmured. "Silver Circle Assassins."

She closed her eyes and tried to picture in her mind the scene from the martial arts championship. Who were on the same team as Zuko? A name surfaced in her mind, Leu Long, Earth Dragon. "Huo Long and Leu Long." But she had no other names except… Mu-Tan. "Mu-Tan," she repeated as she struggled to remember more. "Tattoi Ryuu." She found it interesting there that the words Noble Dragon were in the Fire Nation tongue and not the Earth Kingdom tongue where they should have read Gaoshang de Long. She lounged out on her bed with this new remembered information.

_So, his teacher is Mu-Tan, the old Dragon of the East has turned Qin Maru. The guild of assassins by that name is about as old as the 600 Day Siege. He has a few apprentices then, Zuko among them. Zuko's not a killer though. He never was, never had the heart to be. That is why he needs me. When he becomes Fire Lord, he'll need someone who can do the dark things he won't be able to bring himself to do. I wonder if Qin Maru means something else. Either way, Azula's right again. It ties him back to Ba Sing Se, but not to a woman. Fire Lord Ozai would kill Zuko if he knew about the silver band and Zuko's ties to Ba Sing Se._

She rolled onto her back and twirled a sharp dart in her fingers.

_I'll make him take it off tomorrow night._


	19. Chapter 19: Caught

_**Epilogue 19: Caught**_

Zuko nearly burned his room to ash after Mai left. "How can she do this to me!? How!!?? And be so… so… BLANK! AARGH!! How can she do this and then just… leave!?" He ranted and stormed about his bedroom for a while. Then he opened his bedroom window with a slam. Sometimes Mai drove him to the ends of his wits. And she dared challenge HIM to let go of his control.

He slept poorly and was up at dawn. Out in the obscurer part of the garden near the pond, he chose the spot he and his mother used to sit to feed the turtle ducks. He stared with the slow breathing through each chakra, blocking out the world in the barely visible dawn. He sprang to his feet as he felt a rush of energy and balance fill him. Fast sharp kicks and punches caused fire to arc at his comment. _Fire comes from the breath, not the muscles_, his uncle had taught him. _The solar plexus is the chakra of fire_, he reminded himself. He breathed deep into his stomach and fire blasted smoothly with his exhalation and thrust fist. It didn't tire him as these practices used to. He wished he had not been so stubborn and listened to his uncle sooner. After moving through all the firebending moves he knew, he sank into a solid horse stance and breathed slowly, feeling his weight drop to his feet. Executing the Hung Gar moves had a familiar comfort. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine himself back in the dojo practicing. Ending again in the horse stance he rose up to step lightly through the few Bagua moves he had learned. This required speed and agility. He almost wished he knew more. _The avatar could teach me. I could teach him._ He shook those thoughts firmly from his head and started the slow and frustrating moves of Tai Chi.

He was about to turn slowly and perform the hybrid move his uncle had showed him when he came suddenly face to face with Mai. As usual, her face carried no emotion, no indication of expression or thought. Sometimes he hated that cold mask. She stepped closer and leaned up with an almost soft smile and kissed him. And sometimes he had no idea what to think of her, none, no idea whatsoever in all the nine hells of the universe.

Her voice was the soft husky velvet of someone who never raised it. "I'll meet you at sunset on the cliff lookout." She turned from him with precise grace. She never said or did anything discordant.

Zuko winced at the betrayal of his thoughts and mopped his sweating brow with a cotton-wrapped wrist.

The servants awaited him in his room to ensure he was washed, bathed and made ready for his day. He mulled over the similarities of Kozue and Mai while the princely perfection became him on the outside. He was rushed from place to place in these early days to meet advisors, groomers, tailors, and more to ensure he was fir to appear as the perfect Prince of the Fire Nation. Then he mulled over this perfection, but not for long as a servant with bands upon his wrists stamped with the Fire Lord's emblem informed him that Mai was ready for their sunset meeting. She seemed of late to have mastered the knack of catching him off guard and interrupting his thoughts. She was about as good as Kozue at that, about as good as Azula. Although, he expected it from Azula. He ordered the servant to prepare a picnic basket and blanket for an evening meal. He would take it with him to meet her on the Cliffside to watch the sunset.


	20. Chapter 20: Fire Nation Oath

_**Epilogue 20: Fire Nation Oath**_

Zuko walked by a small group of children, servants really, drilling each other on the Fire Nation Oath. There could not have been more than nine or ten years old. _They must be preparing for their first rites of manhood, the fire walk._ He paused to listen to them, basket on the crook of his arm.

"No no no," said one boy whose hair was shaved up the back, "you have to say it EXACTLY or the fire will eat you alive!"

"It will not. It only burns people who can't bend." This boy was sitting with a little flame in his hand struggling to keep it steady.

"So, you still have to say the oath or you they'll think you are from the _colonies_." A third boy leaned over saying the last word like it was foul language.

The sitting boy snarled back, his flame bursting and going out into smoke in his fist as he clenched it, "I AM from the colonies! And I am just as good a fire---" He stopped with a gasp as he caught sight of the royal prince.

All three turned and dropped to the ground bowing with their faces to the floor.

Zuko approached them. "Recite the Oath," he commanded. Without moving they mumbled through it. Zuko tisked at them as he barely heard a single word. He remembered Ty-min and thought how she would so kick their butts if they groveled like this. The corner of his lip twitched up thinking back on her. Then he commanded them to stand, "When reciting an oath of great honor, you stand straight and tall. When being considered a man, you lift your chin with inner strength and pride. When facing fire, face it with honor and respect."

They stood in a row as tall as they could, though not feeling so brave. Zuko walked around them correcting posture, lifting their chins, and nodding. "Good." He spread a small wall of flame before them. "You are young men-to-be of the Fire Nation. Fire is part of you. It is fueled by your drive and your pride. Even non-benders walk the hot coals and don't get burned. There is no room for fear. Now, recite it again."

They collectively took a deep breath watching the dancing flames warily. Then they recited loudly and firmly the oath, "My life I give to my country. With my hands I fight for Fire Lord Ozai and our Forefathers before him. With my mind I seek ways to better my country and with my feet I march to serve my nation."

Zuko dropped the wall of flame and nodded to them with pride, "You did very well. It will be an honor to have you as men of this nation. Good luck with your rite." He then bowed to each of them and walked away. He quirked a grin as he heard them whisper behind him in his wake.

"That was so hot… He was right there… and he bowed to us! To us!" They whispered back and forth to one another. "How did he know we were going to do our rites?" They glanced at Zuko's retreating back. "it must be because he is the prince. He knows everything." They marched like little soldiers through the halls reciting the oath loudly and with pride.

_**My life I give to my country**_

with my hands I fight for Fire Lord Ozai and our Forefathers before him

with my mind I seek ways to better my country

and with my feet I march to serve my nation

Zuko stepped out into the evening heat with the sea breeze cooling it. He took a palanquin to Mai's home to pick her up on their way to the cliff edge where they would have their picnic.


	21. Chapter 21: Sunset Burn

_**Epilogue 21: Sunset Burn**_

Casually they relaxed on a soft red blanket, content from the fill of their picnic dinner. Zuko leans back on his hands and Mai snuggled close with her head on his shoulder. They looked out as the sky's hues shimmered varying shades of dark orange burning the cliff's edge and reflecting on the mirror of the calm sea. Zuko carefully raises his nose to smell if a storm was coming.

She snuggled closer sighing, "Orange is such an awful color."

She had said it so smoothly and calmly that it made him snicker. "You are so beautiful when you hate the world," he mused.

"I don't hate you," she shifted so their eyes could meet.

"I don't hate you too," he replied just before their lips met. If only the little pangs of guilt were not ever present in moments like this. If only this didn't feel as right as it was starting to feel. If only something could happen to disrupt this and save him for betraying Faelin's love.

"Eh-hem!" Azula cleared her throat loudly before them.

If only that distraction were anything but his sister. Both Zuko and Mai frowned at the rude interruption.

"Zuko. Can I have a word with you." She never really asked. Her question was formed more like an order that left no room for saying no.

Zuko intended to say no anyways, "Can't you see we're busy." _Bugger off and be cruel to someone else, Azula._ Mai was thinking the same thing as she dared glare back at Azula. They kissed again ignoring Azula just to spite her.

Azula rolled her eyes and chose another tactic that she knew Zuko could not understand and thus could not refute. Addressing Zuko was the wrong tactic. Zuko didn't seem to fear her like everyone else. "Oh Mai, Ty Lee needs your help untangling her braid." _Get lost Mai or I will make you pay for it._

"Sounds pretty serious," Mai commented drably. She knew what Azula was actually saying and it twisted inside her as she admired Zuko's courage to stand up to this frightening young woman. She stood and walked past Azula, smooth deadly grace that didn't have Zuko's inner strength. It ate at her to think that she was a very fine assassin, willing to do just about anything, and yet Azula controlled her better than her own parents ever did. Her eyes slid sideways with distaste when she knew Azula would not see. _One day, Azula, one day…_

Azula crossed her arms and grinned with her sly plan, "So Zuko, I heard you went to visit that old fatso of a traitor, out uncle."

"That guard told you!" Zuko stood fists clenched as he planned ways to seriously hurt the man for disobeying him.

Azula shrugged, "No. You did… just now." She smiled so pleased with the spider-mouse that was so easily snapped in her trap.

She reveled in the sag of Zuko's shoulders as he sank back to sitting on the blanket, "ok, you caught me." He looked away from her defeated. "What is it that you want Azula?"

"Actually, nothing." Zuko was sure that was just another lie. "Believe it or not, I'm looking out for you. If people find out you've been to see Uncle, they'll think you're plotting with him. Just be careful, dumb dumb." Only then did she leave him alone to think about what she said.

He stared at some fraying threads on the edge of the blanket for a long while. _Azula always lies. Azula always lies._ She needed him to take the fall when the avatar returned. He needed to know if the avatar was alive. And if he was, when he was going to show up. He needed to know the timing. He needed to drive the avatar away. The Day of Black Sun was a bad time. Azula would be waiting for Aang to make sure she really killed him. He wanted to plot with his uncle. That was partly why he was here. He just didn't know how to be that subtle. He stood and incinerated the blanket and basket remains of the picnic with a yell. Then his shoulders sagged again. He hated Azula. He needed his uncle.

_To the nine hells with her. I'll see my uncle if I want to. She can go right ahead and interrogate the guard if she likes. She'll not find any plotting happening at all. Uncle won't even speak…_

He stared at the sunset as the orange hues were changing to dark red of hot coals. _Sometimes even benders get burned._ He thought about how he was burned on his feet when he was just ten and walked the coals. He walked them anyways, all the way to the end without crying. That was when his father stopped regarding him as worthy. It was his uncle that picked him up and carried him to the bath where his cousin Lu Ten was waiting. Lu Ten ran for bandages, while his uncle held him as his father ought to have. _Sometimes even benders get burned._


	22. Chapter 22: Lost

_**Epilogue 22: Lost**_

Later that night, Zuko slipped out of the palace hidden in the shadowy hood of his cloak. He had almost expected Mai to be there and was relieved she wasn't. Part of him was also disappoints she was not there. He pressed himself into a dark nook in a wall. His mind staring to swirl in the feelings of betrayal to his nation, in the unnatural feelings of comfort by having anything he wanted when (except the people he loved), the suspicion that the avatar was alive, and not knowing whether he wanted the avatar to be safe or dead. He checked the bag he carried to ensure its contents were secure before continuing on through the alleys and then across a bridge to the prison.

The moon was full as he crossed the bridge and he wondered if Katara was or already had used its strength to heal Aang over the months. He dropped his hood and strode past the guard into his uncle cell room. He knelt and removed the contents of his bag. The basket was still warm as he slid it through the food slot near the floor of the prison bars. His uncle sat as he usually did with his back to the door. Zuko hesitated, wishing he could face his uncle. "I brought you some komodo-chicken." Zuko spoke as gently as he could, hoping his uncle would listen. "I know you don't care for it, but I figured it beats prison food." The silence stretched like the ocean.

"I admit it," confessed Zuko, "I have everything I ever wanted, but it is not at all how I though it would be." He wanted to say something about Faelin, the tiniest thread of music tickled his mind and he thought she must be humming that lullaby to Ty-Min. He dared not say anything about her here. Azula might interrogate the guard.

"The truth it, I need your advice." Zuko dropped his eyes to the floor then gripped the bars willing his uncle to turn around, "I think the avatar is still alive."

Iroh didn't move, but worried inside what his nephew's intentions were, if Zuko had become lost again to the will of Ozai to hunt and kill the avatar.

"I know he's out there," Zuko whispered fiercely. "I'm losing my mind." He gritted his teeth and swallowed his pride. "Please," he begged, "please uncle. I'm so confused. I need your help."

Still Iroh did not move. Zuko needed to be a man on his own terms now. Iroh had picked him up enough. Zuko needed to pick himself up now.

Anxiety gave way to panic, then to frustration that finally fueled Zuko's fire and anger. "Forget it! I'll solve this myself!!" he yelled as he stood, fists clenched. "Waste away in here for all I care!" He turned already regretting his outburst. He pulled open the door and paused. His eyes stung as he gave one more hopeless look back at his uncle before leaving.

It pained Iroh to not give in to his beloved nephew. It was a tough kind of love that left his cheeks wet with tears. He didn't know what side Zuko was on. Zuko didn't tell him, had only asked to be trusted. Iroh wanted to trust Zuko, desperately. But if they were caught talking and he was advising Zuko of anything, then whatever Zuko could do that would be helpful would be smothered in both their deaths. It might result in the deaths of others, like Faelin and hers and Zuko's unborn child, his grand niece or nephew. So, knowing how lost Zuko felt, he held his tongue and cried in silence.


	23. Chapter 23: Mistakes

_**Epilogue 23: Mistakes**_

"Mai." Azula was still snippety from earlier when she interrupted Zuko and Mai at sunset. She addressed her friend, but not in any polite requesting manner. Azula never asked, she commanded. "Mai. Find that steel Cyclops you mentioned a while ago. I want to speak to him."

Mai bristled. Among assassins, he was by far the cruelest and most insane. He followed no codes. He was a mercenary with no honor and just as likely to turn on the person who hired or contacted him.

"Mai." Azula's tone was insistent now. "I want him out of the picture."

Mai stood not knowing exactly who Azula meant and hoped she was referring to the uncontrollable assassin.

"Oh, and Mai." May's face remained an impassive mask of boredom as Azula again spoke to her. "Make Zuko take off that infernal bracelet."

_One day Azula, you will make a terrible mistake. _

Mai sent word out for the steel assassin that Azula called the Cyclops. He wasn't really a Cyclops. He is a unique man with a unique form of firebending. Learning of this cost the huge man an arm, a leg, his speech, and most of his coherent sanity. Mai delivered the message and stayed out of the man's sight. This was a mistake in her mind. You want to hire people you can control in some way.

Azula met the Cyclops and was almost surprised to see he actually had two eyes and the Cyclops part was just a tattoo around the focal point of his firebending release through his third eye. _He probably fried most of his brains._ "Here is enough payment to not question anything I ask for several years. Do it to the letter. My first task for you is to do as my brother asks should he ask anything of you this week. And do it with finality." _Because he knows the avatar is alive and he'll look for the only man who might be able to find him and won't stop till he's found. Other mercenaries are not so thorough._

Azula paid the man in gold and had Mai and Ty Lee spread the word among locals of a fine mercenary who can accomplish any task. She hoped her brother behaved as he normally would. _Zuzu is so predictable sometime._

Azula was rewarded that night as Zuko did indeed fall for the bait and called upon this steel assassin to find the avatar and end his coming to the Fire Islands. Azula grinned at how her brother rarely thinks things through entirely. A mistake she hoped would cost him his life at an appropriate time. It also confirmed her suspicion about the survival of the avatar. She decided now was a good time to enlighten her father of the Day of Black Sun plans that the resistance fighters of the world were planning.

Azula walked past Mai with a contented feral feline grin, "I love when a mistake plays in my favor." She waved casually as she continued on to her father's chambers, "Mai!" she called back, "Don't forget what I asked of you."

Mai turned on her heel ignoring Ty Lee's queries and shooing her friend off with a statement that she was going to visit Zuko and wanted privacy. Ty Lee only giggled and obliged. Mai passed the servants putting out the palace torches for the night on her way to Zuko's private chambers.

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	24. Chapter 24: Take It Off

_**Epilogue 24: Take It Off**_

Zuko in his lingering frustration kicked over his stool, then incinerated his wardrobe cabinet, and then bent a metal post on his canopy bed. He winced and sucked his breath as he sank to sitting and rubbed his foot. He prayed that mercenary he hired would keep the avatar from the Fire Islands. The Day of Black Sun was a trap and the avatar was doomed to walk into it.

His fury spent, Zuko pulled the tie in his topknot and tossed it randomly across his room. He surveyed his destruction and began cleaning up. Some would just require the servants in the morning. He draped his hooded cloak over the chair next to his bed and retrieved the little flute from under his pillow. A gentle sweep of his hand lit the candles along his meditation table. He knelt as he exhaled and breathed through the seven chakras to try to balance himself. He felt so conflicted. Here he was with everything he ever wanted, including his honor. It just didn't seem right. He watched the flames flicker as if they were the flames of the Royal Throne.

The barest click of the door closing and silken swish of fabric and fine leather informed him of Mai's invading presence. She pressed a hand to his back as she glanced about his room. She settled behind him as she often did now with her cheek against the back of Zuko's shoulder and her arms gently around his middle, absorbing the silent calm of his meditation. The light tap of metal on wood made her frown as Zuko placed his flute on the meditation table. "You aren't going to play?" Mai asked in her rough soft voice.

"No." Zuko wasn't sure why he changed his mind. He felt a little like he lost something, like it wasn't right for him to play, like he no longer understood the reason for trying. His head hung and his hands lay limp in his lap.

It unsettled Mai to see Zuko like this, like the fire was going out in him. He had so much courage earlier at sunset. She needed him to be strong, to fight… for something. He needed his inner fire rekindled. Azula's words rang in her ear as she considered her choices and their consequences. Deftly, she untied Zuko's robe and smoothly lifted it off his shoulders so that it pooled around the mat they sat upon. She slipped the leather fingerless gloves off her hands. Zuko wondered what she was doing, as well as why he was letting her disrobe him. He listened in silence watching the flames flicker as she removed her own belts of hidden blades and knelt again behind him with just a simple under dress. She brushed her hands across the back of his shoulders and massages a little.

His muscles were tense like iron. Part of him wished she would just go. Part of him wanted desperately to just be held and told it would all work out. He swallowed hard reminding himself of what not to say, though he was starting to trust her more each day. He squeezed his eyes shut and silently chastised himself for the rising heat and desire he felt for Mai. _I have Faelin, don't I?_ He could barely sense her. _I have a child coming, my heir._ The gentle massage eased some of his tension. A cool breeze came in the wake of Mai moving to stand and walk away from him. He stood and turned as she locked his door against potential intruders.

She stood a moment letting him look upon her. She seemed naked to Zuko with none of her blades upon her and just the thin loose under dress clinging to her body. The flickering flames cast dancing shadows of her form against the door as she strode forward, eyes locked on his. She stopped a few steps out of his reach. He took a step forward, almost reluctantly. Her eyes slid down his bare torso. It made him shiver, causing her lip to flicker at the corner.

With visible effort, he turned away from her. She closed some of the distance. Spent emotionally and physically from the day, he did not want her distraction before him. However, she was still there. The heat of her body warmed his back. He clenched his jaw reflexively. She slid her hands up his back to his shoulders. The heat poured over his shoulders and down his chest. He knew she was not a firebender, but she managed to stir the fire in him with her touch. He clenched his fists considering using anger to make her leave. She only traced the outlines of the muscles down his arms to his wrists. As her fingered played with the silver band, he snatched his hand away from her.

Mai frowned, "Why is it so important to you? If you are Qin Maru, you are an assassin then, aren't you?" She pressed with her words remembering the last time they spoke of his bracelet. "If it's not your destiny to kill someone here. Who's destiny is it and who is supposed to die?"

Zuko turned sharply. Mai saw the anger in his eyes and met his gaze icily. Zuko gritted his teeth a moment before answering. "It is not your concern, Mai. None of those questions concern you. Enough people have already died. I am not here to add to the list."

"No, you just came back for your honor," she snapped hautily. "You are too busy being attached to whatever or whoever is in Ba Sing Se. If you just let that go, maybe you will have that honor." In his anger he raised his hand to hit her for her sharp stabbing words. Her hand was faster as the resounding slap echoed in his room and stung his cheek. "Don't you ever raise your hand at me. Not ever."

He regretted his action even before she slapped him. His chest heaved as the worry sunk in, _Dear gods, am I becoming like my father?_ He took a step back from Mai. "I'm sorry."

"Zuko." Mai took hold of his wrist, silver band and all. "Zuko, I know your honor is tied into what your father sees. But if he thinks you favor anything about the enemy---"

"They are not the enemy."

"Shh!" Mai hissed at him. "I don't care what you think about who. But some people do. The fact that you wear this puts you at risk." And her if she wants to be with him and eventually earn the place on the throne beside him after. She had her own reasons for having him remove the bracelet. Those reasons had nothing to do with Azula's command. He let her lift his wrist to inspect the bracelet.

"I earned it with honor. I may not have a lot of honor, but this... this is mine. I swore vows for it." He explained as simply and plainly as he could. He tried to keep the lingering anger out of his voice.

She sighed, "You won't take it off, will you."

"No." It was one thing he would not shake on. She knew when he set his mind to things; he was like a blazing fire that pursued the path till the fuel was gone. His one word proved there was still too much fuel and he would not let go of this path for a long while.

Mai realized she would have to be much more convincing. She'd make him take it off if it ended up being the last thing he removes. She stepped in close still holding his wrist in her hand. She pressed her other hand flat against his chest to feel his racing heart. He was always on the edge of explosion. It was exciting. It was more than exciting. She trailed her nails lightly down his chest to the tie that held his pants in place. He tried to say her name, but could not around the sharp breath he took in as her hand stroked lower to find the stiff dagger within his pants. The grip was the same as the other night. She watched him as she explored his through his pants. She wondered what he would do when he did let go. She released his wrist to untie his pants and let them fall silkily to the floor.

Naked in the candlelight, Zuko grabbed her upper arms intending to push her back. His mind clouded with the mix of duty and desire. Her velvety lips touched his igniting his tongue. He pulled her closer instead of pushing her away. They kissed deeply for many heartbeats as the fire burned away his focus. He felt himself coming to that edge that Kozue had taught him. Mai stepped back one slow step at a time, her hands teasing the fire under his skin. He forgot the will to stop at the edge and allowed her to guide him over it, abandoning his clothing on the meditation mat. This would not be the first man she enticed to bed in this manner. Zuko would simply be the first she did not kill before losing her maidenhood. She wondered if Zuko would stop or not. She wondered if she wanted him to.

The room steamed a little with the rising heat. The candles melted and guttered out, plunging the room into seductive darkness. Zuko moved over her as she laid back on the bed, exchanging fiery kisses in the dark. They breathed heavily in each others ears. Sweat made their skin slick and lightly dampened the silk of her under dress so it was hard to tell if it was fabric or bare skin sliding against bare skin. "Zuko," Mai almost panted, "Take it off." She meant his silver band, he removed her silken robe. Zuko tasted the sweat on her body till he pressed hot lips to hers hungrily. Her hands roamed his sweat damp body, down the rippling muscles of his arms. He pressed his body to her feeling his dagger find the opening to its new sheath. Mai almost forgot what she was doing. Zuko groaned as he tried to regain some semblance of thought. She dared not let him. She parted her legs a little more to give him room, marveling at the tip of his dagger ready to plunge into the depths of her. She slid a hand down between them to feel that dagger and explore the sharp tip. He was indeed a man properly cut and exposed. She wondered since he was away. His uncle must have done it. She heard Zuko pant hard into her shoulder as she explored him. He would not be able to hold out much longer, and if he did, she would lose her control over him. She caressed over his back and down his arms again to his wrists. "Yes," she whispered in his ear. Permission granted he pushed smoothly into her as she pushed her hands to the tips of his fingers, deftly removing the silver band from his sweaty wrist. She gasped sharply as he stabbed into her for the first time. She let go of the band as they both forgot it in the moment of being deeply sheathed. Zuko groaned as he moved within her. The pain stung and thrilled her as she encouraged him onward. She planned to marry him anyways, so having lost this small part of her to him did not matter so much.

Azula paused by the outside of Zuko's door to listen to the huffs and groans and pants, even the small cries of rising pleasure. She felt the heat within her stir as she wondered if her brother was that good a lover. She smiled slyly at her new knowledge of Mai and Zuko that she could use later if she needed to. The cries behind the door came to a crescendo as Azula walked away. Mai was mostly a quiet lover; much of the noise was Zuko. This is how Azula was certain it was Mai. Mai would never make noise; she hardly did at any other time, why would sex be any different.

Azula was out of earshot when Mai did beg Zuko not to stop. He was not really done yet anyways and thrust fiercely till Mai did cry out, her nails digging into his shoulders. He thrust hard and fast till the fire burst from him into her and the air cooled around them. He rolled off her lazily and all muzzy-headed. He was spent so thoroughly he never realized that he muttered Faelin's name as he was drifting to sleep.

Mai narrowed her eyes, angry that Azula was actually right. The silver band was from a girl. Mai contemplated killing Zuko there and then. She slipped silently from the bed to clean herself up, his silver band in her furious hand.


	25. Chapter 25: Give It Back

_**Epilogue 25: Give it Back**_

Zuko pushed himself on his elbows wondering where the incredibly body that was beside him went. His eyes met Mai's across the room. Ice chased the sweat around his body till he almost shook with the chill of realization of what he had done.

"Who... is... Faelin..." Mai's words cut sharply.

Zuko saw her gripping the silver band in her hand. He grasped internally for the bond he had with Faelin worried it was gone. His panic blocked his inner balance and thus the ability to sense much beyond his panic. "Mai."

"Tell me or I swear, I will give her trinket to Azula." No emotion crossed her face, but Zuko knew she meant every word.

"Mai!" Fire danced around the room as Zuko stood and strode over to her. He could not afford either the band getting to Azula, nor the news of Faelin. He hated himself for thinking he might be justified in killing Mai if he had to for her silence. But he could not help but hope. He hoped he could work this out.

Mai stood her ground to angry at Zuko to be afraid of the fire. Azula was scarier anyways. Zuko was no killer, he would not hurt her and that would be his failing. She watched him step closer and closer.

"Mai," he said more gently. "That trinket is not hers to me. It is a symbol of my vows sword to the Order of the Silver Circle. And they are not assassin, but protectors." He prayed that perhaps some truth would calm her. "I am sworn to protect people. Faelin... is someone dear to me that I protect."

Mai considered his words. "Did you do with her what you just did with me?"

Zuko stepped closer. "I am Qin Maru. Bound by honor and love to the sacred. Honor is the Law. Love is the Bond. It is the one thing about me no one can take away, even if you take away the band. You cannot take away who I am."

"Did you sleep with her?" Mai insisted.

"Yes." He didn't want to lie.

"Do you---" She could not bring herself to say the words out loud.

"Yes, I love her," confessed Zuko. "And I am sorry for my weakness this night. It is hard… because… I love you too."

Mai wasn't sure what disarmed her more, that Zuko had another lover or that he said he loved her and seemed to mean it.

"I'm sorry Mai. I wish I could give back this night to you." The fires died around them. Zuko really didn't want to hurt her. She was right. He did not have it in him to be cruel. He held out his hand, "Give it back, Mai."

She handed the band back to him unable to speak. Zuko stepped closer to comfort her, but she brushed him off and gathered her things. She dressed quickly. "Mai, I'm sorry."

"Shut up!" she snapped. She marched to the door slamming it open. Just before slamming it shut she snapped again. "Hide it. Hide it or it will get you killed. If not by me, then by Azula or your father." Then she slammed the door and was gone. Zuko flooped on the bed in inner frustration, "How could I have been so stupid!! WHY?!? Why can't I just do what's right?! AAARRGGH!!"

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	26. Chapter 26: Assassin & Dragon

_**Epilogue 26: Assassin and Dragon**_

Silent feet padded along the escarpment. A guard came into view and a figure vanished into shadow, crouches small so as not to be seen. The guard walked on. With deft fingers and a small grin of satisfaction, the figure slid over the side and scaled skillfully down the wall to a window. Her blue eyes calculated the space between the hallway bars and judged them to be far enough apart to squeeze through. She slithered through the space and dropped to the ground freezing to make sure the small thud of her landing did not attract attention. Killing a guard would raise too many questions later and endanger her target.

Kazue had watched the prison for days debating returning to Zuko's room when she got bored, however that other assassin woman was trouble, too keen. She didn't want to risk Zuko. He also, was no longer really the target, unless he betrayed his vows. A whisper in her mind caused her to crouch in the shadow again as a guard came just barely in view on his night patrol. She had begun to trust this whisper in her mind. It helped her achieve her goals and avoid detection. She eased her lock-pick set from her boot and inched toward the door she needed. The moment the Guard was again out of view she picked the lock and slipped inside unnoticed.

Unnoticed save for the bearded man who opened his eyes suddenly from where he slept.

She stood and walked gracefully over to the barred door. "I can get you out. The counsel of Five Generals have fallen and the Dragon of the East wishes your freedom. Zuko is here. Though his relations with the noble woman Mai… bother me," she frowned slightly.

It took Iroh several moments to place this young woman and remember her finally from the dojo as one of Mu-Tan's. She must be the assassin they had sent to the Fire islands. Kozue. Iroh could not believe how young she was, barely 18. In war though, 15 was old enough to walk onto the field with a weapon and die. "No. I cannot leave. Zuko needs me. Don't worry about Mai, Zuko loves Faelin." He sighed praying Zuko was not lost, hoping beyond hope.

Kozue saw the strain but was not really moved by it. "Then what message do you have for me to send to Mu-Tan? Or is there someone I should kill? Azula and the Fire Lord are not accessible. I tried that already."

Iroh sat up surprised that this little shadow of a girl dared something so bold. "If I give you directions, can you claim something from my old room for me? Something from the palace? Then I will need word sent out to a man here in the islands as quickly as possible. Tell Mu-Tan I am well and will see him soon. I can get out of here on my own when I am ready to."

A delicate, yet dangerous smile crept across her face as she sat child-like on the other side of the bars for further instruction. Iroh now understood the scariness of this girl and the dangerousness that her father, Ling had warned him of once. She was pure grace, pure deadly skill, and purely without conscience. Being an assassin and a spy was… fun for her. He chose his words carefully as he directed her through the palace verbally to his room and to a secret place and a secret artifact that he held by request of someone he had loved long ago when he thought his own life would fade to nothing. Kozue accepted the challenge and was away like a whisper of wind. He thought she moved smoothly like the great dragons he had once seen, or maybe like a dark dragon he had heard about in ancient legends.

Iroh rolled back onto his scrap of bedroll thinking back on those forbidden moments he had had in with the Lady of the Fire Lord. She had been so upset from Ozai's change in behavior and cried on his shoulder. His wife long dead and his son training now as a new recruit in the army, he too sought refuge in her arms for his loneliness. He wondered if he would ever tell Zuko that he might actually be his father and not Ozai. Zuko would never believe him. Iroh rolled to his side and sighed heavily missing both his son and his nephew in the ages of adorable they had each been. A tear slipped down his cheek, a large dragon tear, full of the pain of loss of them both. Zuko needed to find his own way now without help. Maybe this one last bit of help. His eyes closed remembering the hum of Ursa's soft voice as she soothed him from the shock of the loss of his son, how he learned she was a priestess that day as she balanced him and called him back from the edges of the Spirit World to ease him gently into living slumber. That is where he drifted to now.

The whispers grew a little louder in Kozue's mind but as yet were not clear enough to truly understand. Ignoring them for now in preference of the fun task of sneaking back into the palace via a new route, she dashed across to the palace and dropped down the nearest well.

2


	27. Chapter 27: Lessons of the Painted Lady

_**Epilogue 27: Lessons from the Painted Lady**_

All spirits gain strength from the love and worship of their followers. The power of belief can do incredible things. When wronged or abandoned, some spirits grow angry and destructive. Some abandon their people. And some fade into legend waiting for someone to remind the people they are there.

This last is the case of the Painted Lady, a river spirit in the larger islands of the Fire Nation. It is said that she rose from the waters in times of need and taught the people how to fish and how to use herbs to make medicines. Over time, as needs were less and the people grew prosperous, she was forgotten into the stories told to children and the legends and lore shared around the cooking fires.

In the time of the 100 year war, even her lessons were forgotten. Her waters polluted so badly by the waste from a weapon's factory bent on making tools of destruction, she lacked the strength to help her people in need. The spirit quietly waited, her prayers drifting on the winds to the moon that she herself worshipped. And the moon answered by sending one of her own.

Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe it was fate. A young waterbender, with the gift of healing arrived with her friends to the village seeking food and finding only despair. To her brother who wanted them to continue on, she voiced a calling from deep with in. She pleaded with him for them to stay, but he did not want to budge. The avatar was with them and they needed to get to their destination soon, before the Day of Black Sun in order to defeat the Fire Lord and save the world. "These people are starving!" She pleaded more. "What can we do?"

His words were sharp and stung, "We do nothing. We cannot. We have to get Aang to the capital in time."

She fisted her hands as a ferocity that gave her as much courage as any firebender erupted within her. "I WILL NEVER TURN MY BACK ON PEOPLE WHO NEED ME!" Her desire to help those in need woke the same desire of the river spirit known as the Painted Lady. The young waterbender, named Katara, dreamed of how she could help. She dressed in the way she had dreamed and snuck off into the night to steal food and medicine from the military factory to help feed and heal the people. The people began to remember their Painted Lady as their hopes rose. Then throwing caution to the winds, Katara with Aang's help destroyed the factory so that it would no longer pollute the river.

At first her brother was upset, Sokka again spoke sharp words, "You can't keep doing this Katara! They will only go back to the way they were. If you keep giving them stuff, they will never fend for themselves." His words too were part of the lessons of the Painted Lady. However, he remembered his sister's words about never turning her back on those that need her. With a sigh he conceded, "You need me. And I will never turn my back on you."

In a short and desperate battle. They drove off the angry soldiers from the small struggling village. The people were upset at first by Katara's deception as the century of animosity with their enemy colored the boons placed before them.

Katara had given the Painted Lady form and hands to act. Now she gave the Painted Lady voice, "It doesn't matter if the Painted Lady is real or not. Your problems are real. And this river is real!" She remembered her brother's words earlier, "You can't wait around for someone to help you. You must help yourselves!"

Moved by both actions and words, their hearts (if not their minds) remembered the Lessons of the Painted Lady. _Clean and protect the river and she will always provide. Fish the waters and harvest from the shores and you will never go hungry and always be healed. I will be here to help you in times of need. But remember I can only help those willing to help themselves._

Before departing the area, in the light of the moon, Katara washed her face in the now clean waters of the river. A shimmering light reflected in the waters and Katara lifted her eyes. Floating there was a women with Water Tribe tanned skin, the amber gold eyes of the Fire Nation, a perlescent moon painted on her brow, the burnt red ochre lines and swirls painted on her face, simple flowing robes of moonlight cream, and fiery ropes of fishing nets holding it together at a clam shell upon her breast, the wide conical hat of the local grasses and a thin veil of mystery. She was the harmony of fire and water, of moon and sun. And she smiled sweetly to the brave waterbender on the shore. "Thank you," she whispered into the silence of the night just as she faded into the foggy mists of the river.

With luck, more people of the Fire Nation will remember these small lessons to free themselves of the shackles of their Lord in this cruel war that has lasted far too long.


	28. Chapter 28: Iroh in Prison I

_**Epilogue 28: Iroh in Prison: Part 1 **_

**A/N – Iroh first person**

_Eyes closed. Slowly breathe in. Slowly breathe out. The key to firebending is the breath. It comes from the breath not the muscles. Slowly breathe deep, deep into the stomach. That is where fire resides in the body._

_When all you can do is sit and think day in and day out, so many things come to mind. Slowly breathe in. Slowly breathe out. Memories, feelings, plans… even the ones you thought were forgotten. In all this, in the darkest of times, when you are a prisoner as I am, you strive to never forget who you are. _

_Her words rang in my mind every time I was ready to lose hope. Slow breathe in. Slowly breathe out. Never forget…._

_I am Iroh, son of Azulon, grandson of Sozin and grandson of Avatar Roku. I was once crowned prince of the Fire Nation. I was once a great general of the armies. I was… I am the last to be named Dragon according to our customs. I am Iroh, Dragon of the West. I have been son, lover, father, uncle and friend. I have been royal, military, common, pauper and prisoner. I am a tea master. I am a Master within the order of the White Lotus. I am many things._

_Slowly breathe in. Slowly breathe out. Let's hope I can appear to be a few more things and deceive these guards at least until the day of Black Sun. _

_Zuko… I hope you too will never forget who you are…. Never forget who you are deep down inside._


	29. Chapter 29: Iroh in Prison II

_**Epilogue 29: Iroh in Prison: Part 2 **_

**A/N – Iroh first person**

_Between sweating like a rhino-pig, groveling for the scraps kicked through the bars, and meditating… there is distracted sleep. I worry constantly about Zuko. Our last meetings have been harsh. Harsh on us both. It stabs me every time I hear his desperate pleas for guidance. It reminds me of when he was lost in a strange section of the palace and his little sister had terrorized him with stories of demons lurking in the dark waiting to eat him. _

_Those moments remind me of the unstable insanity that has run through our family. Sozin had it. It was slow to manifest, but it did. Azulon, my father, didn't have it as far as I knew, but he was determined and overly proud. I don't think I have it. Hehe… unless you consider my obsession with the wonderful goodness of tea to be the manifestation of insanity. Hmmm… ok… maybe I do have it in my own way. MMmmm… oh to have tea now. Ozai has it without a doubt. Only an insane man would burn is 12-year-old son like he did in an Agni Kai. Zuko might have it slightly, like my father, in a manageable way. I pray it never gets out of hand with him. Never forget Zuko…. As for Azula, well she has it in spades! She's down right crazy!_

_Never forget… Never forget who you are…_

_Ursa's words to me in haze of suicidal depression. My son was gone. She was whispering my name across the chasm of the spirit world. A delicate lotus tattoo at her throat shimmered. I never knew till then. She had never told me she was priestess trained. It reminded me in that hazy moment that true Fire Lords were either Fire Sages themselves at one point or wed to a Priestess of Fire. Ursa was a priestess and she was calling my spirit back when I was so lost. I lost my son. I lost my crown to my younger brother. I was going to lose her, too. _

"_Iroh, please… come back. Root to navel. Navel to solar plexus. Solar Plexus to heart. My love, come back. Heart to throat. Throat to third eye. Iroh, Remember who you are. Third eye to crown. Please gods, help me to call him back. Iroh…. Iroh…. I need you…. Iroh… Zuko needs you…"_

_I opened my eyes as I lay in the arms of a priestess in all her divinely imbued glory. Ursa. I was needed. As I had sat up at last to accept a ginseng tea from her shaking hands, I realized the gravity. I was needed more than words could express. Exhausted from saving me, she broke down into tears, her dark cloak still about her shoulders. I glanced out the window. It was well past midnight. I begged to know what was wrong._

"_I have done a horrible thing. I have to go away, Iroh. Please… guide and protect Zuko. Never forget who you are. Never let him forget either. Please…"_

_I promised her. I held her. I kissed her for the last time._

_I had missed my father's funeral. But, so had she. Ozai was named heir in my place._

_She pulled up her hood and vanished from our lives that night. My promised burned into my hands, lips and heart. I sipped the last tea of sweetened ginseng that Ursa had shared with me._

… _sigh …_

_OH! TEA! I adore this young girl guard. She is kind to me and brings me tea whenever she is here. Mmmm… tea…. I think I will try to spare her on the Day of Black Sun._


	30. Chapter 30: Iroh in Prison III

_**Epilogue 30: Iroh in Prison: Part 3 **_

**A/N – Iroh first person**

_I waited till the guard left after spitting insults at me. Then I pulled the tatters blanket out of my filthy robe. So all my working out is paying off. The belly is going. Less food too helps. If I can just push myself a bit more…. If I can push my men, I can push myself. They made fine soldiers. They were in amazing form by the time I was done with them. I must get myself into form._

_Now what was that dance again? Step, thrust, swing, stretch, kick sweep, hold. Yes, I remember now. The Dragons… My brother challenged me to hunt down dragons. My father had said there were no more, but a rumor hinted of them north of out islands, not far from the Boiling Rock prison, just some distance east. Ozai and I disagreed on many things. My father agreed with Ozai that I was growing weak and had to prove my manhood. So I was banished till I could bring back the head of the last dragon._

_I took a small ship and they dropped me off alone. I walked for a long time along a beach of white sand made from the crushed shells of sea creatures. It was peaceful. Random small villages tended some fruit trees and large field with a spiraling path up a hill. The lord of the estate escorted me up that hill to the centre, "The God Agni is celebrated here every Summer Solstice in the old ways." He seemed too simple to be a lord of the island. Yes, I remember his name was inscribed among our records. The Kaji family. They were distance cousins to me, second or third. The founder of the estate was Fire Lord Sozin's uncle who had abdicated the throne to Sozin's father. He told me that he would not take the throne unless there was no other choice. We shared tea. I envied his peaceful life. I could see why he had chosen it for his family and descendants. Most of them were not in the records but for notation of being lords. This might be useful one day. _

_I met one of the Fire Sages over tea there, surprised to see him. He was there to perform the formal rites of full adulthood to the Lord's fifteen year old son. I was asked to assist. It was an honor to learn how to do this. It was vastly different from the memory I had being the recipient of the rite. You never quite remember things clearly when you are overheated, euphoric in some trance and someone snips off a bit of your man-parts! Hehehe… I discovered that the lad here was receiving the formal rite as if he were royalty. "To maintain the line if ever the need arises," was the explanation. I vowed to do the rite personally for my own sons one day. True to that, I had later taken Lu Ten through it… and Zuko not long ago. Both my sons made me so very proud._

_I asked about the rumor of the dragon and if there was a chance to hunt one. The statement I was sent with when I walked into the jungle was ominous, "May you find them and may they devour your soul, Heir of the Fire Nation." I hated the sweltering jungle. It took me forever to find the ruins of the ancient civilization of Sun Worshippers, from which we derived our culture. To my surprise, the ancient culture and people were… still there! The lessons I learned were harsh. The dragon did indeed devour my soul; bound me to the protection of this hidden world; named me Dragon of the West; allowed me to watch the birth of a new dragon as its egg was heated and cracked open and the tiny thing devoured some lava; and I returned with an old skull and a promise. _

_The lord of the estate met me on my way back and asked if the dragon devoured my soul. I said it had. I was welcomed back into his home where I learned that he protected this island from cruelties and helped hide the Sun Worshippers. The honor was all mine to have had a brief encounter with the founders of my ways. It changed some of my perspectives forever. Perhaps, I will bring my son there when we have a break from the war. In the end, that would never happen. Maybe… maybe I could send Zuko there? I wonder if Zuko remembers any of my stories of the Firebending Masters? Those were clever takes. _

_Thankfully, no one noticed the skull was old. I was believed. How else would I come by a dragon skull if I didn't defeat the last dragon. They would never understand that they were Agni's gifted beings to teach us firebending._

_Speaking of teaching, I hope Zuko comes by soon. I have a lesson for him. _


	31. Chapter 31: Assassin Delivery

_**Epilogue 31: Assassin Delivery**_

This route into Iroh's old bedroom in the palace was child's play for this silent little assassin. She had but one mishap in her little contract, it was now bleeding in a storage closet that was rarely used. She had to risk a small flame from a candle to open the secret place in the wall behind the bed, but otherwise, the small bundle was a simple retrieval task. She hid the candle with the bleeding night guard as she left. One day, she hoped to earn some good money from all this experience. She considered this a moment as she tip-toed out of the palace. It was a shame there was nothing left of actual value in the old bedroom. It was also a shame that there was no longer any easy route to the rest of the royal suites from this wing. It would have been ever so sweet to be able to assassinate someone like the Fire Lord in his sleep. She shrugged and skipped across the underground drainage to the well opening, returning to her earlier thoughts of charging a fee per contract. If not a fee, then something at least in exchange.

It was nearly dawn when she crept from the well into the streets. That jaunt took longer than she had thought. Finding a little hiding place in the nook of a roof, she napped the day away. She dreamed and a sleek black dragon slithering sensuously through her thoughts, hissing a soft whisper, "_you will be mine, my sweet Lady, my Lady of the Black Dragon._" But that was all and it was gone, like the fading sun over the horizon.

Time to deliver the artifact. On swift silent feet she sped to Iroh's prison again once the moon rose to its zenith. There were too many guards about this time, so she tied a neat rope and lowered herself like a spider down to his window. She dropped the artifact through the window with a small grin that grew as she heard Iroh jump with a start of surprise. He unwrapped it to make sure it was what he expected and sighed with relief. Kozue then dropped in some writing supplies so he may write the message for the man she had to deliver next. Iroh wrote in sharp simple strokes a cryptic message and signed it with a sigil and the design of a white lotus. He placed in into Kozue's little hand through the bar. He never heard her vanish into the night. He wasted no time in fighting out the little brick he had been working on and hiding the artifact behind it.


	32. Chapter 32: Assassin in Piandao's

_**Epilogue 32: Assassin in Piandao's**_

It took a few days to sneak onto ships and find her way to the large island with the rice patty's layering up toward an active volcano. The message she had to deliver was to go to Piandao, the master swordsman of this district. She almost felt this beneath her skills till she arrived at the door and traced her fingers around the lotus pattern there. She scaled the wall in broad daylight in a vine covered area thinking how foolish this man was to leave such a useful place for an assassin to enter. Sharp little blades sliced her palms and feet on the top of that section of wall between the vines and she cursed as she dropped with less grace and less silence into a small pond. There she stood very still waiting for the next trap. Nothing happened. She remained still where she stood till night fell then sat on a rock by the pool and washed her wounds and carefully wrapped them. She knew she should have listened to the whisper in her mind that said not this way. She had listened to the whispering all the way here, but this entry was too tempting to pass up. She promised the voice in her mind that she would obey it from now on without question.

The pain of her cuts kept her more highly alert, till somehow the pain simply faded. She reached a huge rock garden snuck from rock to shrub to rock till she reached the stairs. Taking a brief moment to sit, she peaked under the wrappings of her hands and grinned to see her wounds were healed. She didn't bother to ask why or how. She was glad they were. It meant so were her feet.

She lightly climbed the stairs to a large training space. As she walked across the open space wondering if she would be discovered she stopped in the middle and turned slowly studying the pattern. She giggled softly and danced from petal to petal of the enormous white lotus pattern there. She lifted a tiny lotus pendant she wore about her neck, that her father had given her before she left, so that it was exposed to be seen. Then with graceful steps she entered the estate and searched out the lord, a Master Piandao.

He was asleep in his bed when she found him. She set the note on the bedside table and froze as he opened his eyes to see her. She turned slowly so that he could see her more clearly, "I came with a message from the White Lotus. Iroh wrote this letter for you. Mu-Tan says he is ready to move on Ba Sing Se as soon as the masters can gather together."

He regarded her for a careful and calculated moment noting her every nuance, as well as the pendant. He judged her to be telling the truth. Then he opened the letter and read it. "I will join Mu-Tan once this task is done. Let him know that I will be there before the comet arrives."

She was gone in a flutter of shadows.

Piandao reread Iroh's note:

_Traps can be sprung. No cage can hold a dragon. _

_Water and air and earth move through fire. _

_The wolf needs a teacher. Forge a warrior from the ice. _

_Masters meet on the great wall where The White Lotus blooms to bring peace._

"So… I will have a student will I? I will only teach this student if he or she is worthy. A wolf? He must be wild and uncouth indeed. Unless… Unless he means one of the People." Piandao pondered this as he walked to his large meeting room and stood at the table with the calligraphy supplies. He ground some ink into powder on the slate stone and added just enough water. Carefully he dipped the brush into the ink and poised over the rice paper. Each stroke of his brush was perfection, precise and patient. The kanji for wolf looked remarkably elegant on the paper. "Ookami. Also, Lang… and in their tongue… Amarok… Wolf."


	33. Chapter 33: Way of the Sword

_**Epilogue 33: Way of the Sword**_

So it came to pass that a young man, skinny as a starved wolf knelt on the run in the meeting hall hoping to be trained. "You butler said that when I met you I would prove my worth. But… truth is sir…" the youth's voice shook ever so slightly, "I don't know if I am worthy."

Piandao paused in his calligraphy and looked over his shoulder at the tanned thin face and pale blue eyes. _So… the wolf has come to me for training after all._ "Hmmm… I see. Well then, let's find out together how worthy you are."

And so the lessons progressed…

_Your sword is an extension of yourself, a part of your own body._

_Just as the imagination is limitless, so too are the possibilities of the sword._

_Remember, you cannot take back a stroke of the brush… or a stroke of the sword._

_In battle, you only have an instant to take everything in._

_Manipulate your surroundings and use them to your advantage._

This youth was named Sokka. He was as barbaric as one could imagine. A feral wolf without his pack or family, Piandao could see the hunger in the boy's eyes for approval and guidance. Even though Sokka messed things up, his skill with the blade itself improved by leaps and bounds more impressively than any pupil he had ever had. Sokka was born for blade master, as though his spirit already knew sword mastery and simply needed a teacher to remind him. Sokka's choice for sword smithing metal was a meteor rock. His hazel grey eyes widened at the odd stone as they did at seeing the avatar there in his courtyard.

Sokka continued to impress him. Uncouth as the youth was, Sokka's determination drove him relentless toward his goal to be the best he could, even if he didn't believe he could reach this height.

It reminded him of himself at that age when he was adopted by the master of the Piandao household ages ago. He too was uncouth, a skinny starved orphan whose family was killed by the war of the Fire Nation. His own heritage and blood was a mix of Continental Northern Water Tribe and Air Nomad. He should have been executed too. But the lord of the estate took him in and fed him and trained him with his other few students. Not having any sons of his own, the former Master Piandao chose his heir from among his apprentices. He chose this boy who struggled so fiercely just to live and applied himself with such devotion.

Sokka was no different really. A family torn apart by the very same war. Struggling fiercely to live and applying himself with equal devotion. "Sokka, in you I saw a heart as strong as a LionTurtle and twice as big. It wasn't your skills that impressed me. You showed something beyond that. Creativity. Versatility. Intelligence. These are the traits that define a great swordsman. And these are the traits that define you." Piandao displayed the black-bladed sword, stamped with Piandao's crest on the cross-piece and a white lotus on the pommel. Sokka's three friends waited patiently for the sword to be handed to Sokka. "You told me you didn't know if you were worthy. But I tell you that you are more worthy than any man that I have ever trained."

The courage it took for Sokka to admit his dishonor and risk his life in the name of honor only impressed him further. However, he needed to teach this young man one more lesson, self-confidence. He forced the warrior to fight him to prove to himself his own skills. The battle was fierce and swift. Swipes. Blocks. Sweeps. Thrusts. Parries. Dodges. Sokka was more agile, it compensated for his lack in experience. He was smart too. He didn't attack as mush as defend. He waited for an opening and used it to attain the advantage of higher ground. Sokka used the terrain and made it work for him as he ran, bamboo toppled to interfere with Piandao's advance. His reflexes were incredible. The very barest glimpse of a blade and he dropped to slide a hair's breadth under its edge. Then Sokka swept up dirt into Piandao's eyes. Resourceful… very resourceful. Although, Piandao's mastery of the blade included blind fighting. Even though in the end Sokka was defeated, he hoped the lad had been listening to the words he interjected all through his attacks, "Excellent work Sokka."

After some moments of confusion Piandao explained the Way of the Sword, "It doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belong to us all." He retrieves Sokka's unique meteorite sword and handed to him, "You must continue your training now on your own. I know that one day, if you continue along this path, that you will be an even greater swordsman than I am."

Piandao watched them go and sent his butler after them with a pai sho tile of a white lotus. _Now to fulfill that calling._ He called his butler in, "I must go away on a very important business trip. Please maintain decorum here while I am away… as though I have never left. Obviously, I will not be entertaining visitors for any reason. If by some chance I do not return by the time a month has passed after Sozin's comet. You are my heir. Be sure to train someone. Take one of the orphans from the villages. Or better yet, take a refugee from the docks, someone very young." He packed quickly and left in the night.


	34. Chapter 34: Piandao's Tale

_**A/N:**_

**This is a special edition chapter telling the tale of Piandao. Some things and thoughts and a memory that occurs before he leaves for Ba Sing Se. Who is Piandao anyways? Why is he tanned like a Water Triber? Why are his eyes mostly grey in color? Why would he accept a ruffian like Sokka? Why does Sokka impress him so?**

_**Way of the Sword: Piandao's Tale**_

Master Piandao sat in his large meeting room after the ragtag group left him. He had two notes in the sleeves of his robe. One read for him to train the wolf and make him a warrior. That was a scribbled note and a filthy scrap of paper written by a lotus member from his prison cell here in the Fire Islands. Iroh. He hoped Iroh knew what he was doing. Piandao was in no position to save him. The other note had found its way to him through a secret messenger. It simply read: _The White Lotus blooms upon the great Walls._ It was a summons written in JiongJiong's militarily sharp script.

His butler returned to tell him that Sokka was now in possession of the white lotus tile.

He had meant what he said to the young man, that Sokka was one of the greatest pupils he had ever trained. Sokka stared out as such an uncouth lanky starved and desperate young lad. In such a short time, his dedication to becoming a swordsman flourished under training. With time, he knew the Water Tribe youth would only become the master that was lurking inside him. His love and devotion to the avatar and his family and friends only strengthened that calling.

It reminded him of himself at that age when he was adopted by the master of the Piandao household ages ago.

_Piandao was a master swordsman, a master swordsmith and a lord, a landed estate owner. He managed the small villages and all the layers of rise patties the shelved their way up a mountain that smoked continuously with the lava that lived and flowed within. This was the Master's estate. He had several apprentices, some in swordsmithing, some training to use the sword and other bladed weapons, some in the noble necessities of managing an estate. All learned a little of the other's tasks. Every one forged their own blade. Every one of them learned how to use it. At this point, their training diverted into specialties. _

_He was a selective man when it came to apprentices. You couldn't just assume that because you were noble that he would accept fostering your son for training. He turned many away. No one knew what the criteria was that granted acceptance under his wing. His skill was legend already and everyone hoped to be a student, from the most poverty stricken, to the farm-boy, to the noble and military elite. Piandao sought a quality in his students that was rare. It was the quality of the heart, one that sang out the sword. Sometimes, he would walk through his villages or ride as far as the sea docks and select promising young boys, give them a chance to become something more than what they were. Often, he chose from the gutters of the starved and homeless. He believed that the Way of the Sword belonged to no one in particular, no one nation, no one class, and that anyone with the heart to do so could master it. The art belonged to everyone._

_It was a shame Piandao had no children. He had never remarried after the loss of his wife and child in childbirth. Some were concerned that his art would die out and his lands be carved up by the surrounding nobles. One day, he would have to either choose and heir or vanish into the pages of lore and history like the tales of now rusting blades._

_On one of his walks down by the docks he saw prisoners and refugees being shuffled along. The war had done such cruel things so far. It was not as Sozin or even Azulon had vowed. They were not bringing enlightenment and prosperity to the world. The eyes of families broken apart, starved, or hollow from the deaths of their kin was proof enough of this. He went to play Pai Sho with another old friend and thru that cryptic meeting learned the truth of the refugee camps. Slavery. Mines. Execution. The last was the more merciful. _

_He could do nothing for them though as he later watched them being marched along into large carts. He could not save them all. His eyes fell upon a young boy who struggled fiercely like a feral wolf-lion. A guard who was fed up drew his blade to end the boy. Master Piandao concluded he couldn't save them all, but he could save this one. As the blade came down upon the boy, it rang loudly against Piandao's. Everyone stopped and stared. "This one will be mine. Hand him over." The guard looked about to protest. "I am Lord Master Piandao. I have rank and right to claim any person as mine by writ of Fire Lord Azulon." He did after all since Azulon wanted elite swordsmen from Piandao to be the royal guard in the palace._

"_But sir… my lord… he's not…" stammered the guard._

"_He's mine." He took hold of the stunned boy's arm and led him away to his rhino lizard. The boy was wild, lanky and starved. He was rough and uncouth. Along the journey, he learned that the boy was of mixed blood out of one of the conquered colonies. His mother was continental Water Tribe from the North Peninsula and his father was an Air Nomad from the Western Air Temple. That had made no sense at first because all the Air Nomads were supposed to have been extinct. The boy explained that his father was a guru, named Pathik, but as a nomad had not been seen for many years. The boy's hazel grey eyes grew wet for the loss of his parents. Piandao explained that he would give the boy a good home and fine training if he were worthy of it._

_The boy knelt a long time while Piandao met and received reports of the progress of his other fosterling apprentices. Most were ready for release and assignments or to return to their homes. There was one other boy, Fat, who was still learning the ways of the sword and the ways of assistant management, a merchants fifth son with no real future. Finally all were dismissed except this new boy who was not really Fire nation at all, with his tanned skin and grey eyes. The master looked at the boy expectantly._

_The boy hung his head, "I been listenin', sir. An'... an' I been thinkin', sir…An' truth is… I donna know iffen I'm worthy." His spirit seemed so defeated. "I gots so muchen to learn…"_

_The boy's accent was endearing, but he knew over time it would vanish, along with the boy's lack of self esteem. He had seen ferocity in him before and haw a heart determined to be something more. With study, with training, and with a good blade, this boy could be the finest pupil he had ever trained. "I will train you." The boy looked up with hope lighting his eyes. So began the grueling work of educating the boy in the basics of reading and writing and arithmetic, literature and poetry and calligraphy, dance and music and painting, and especially the arts of forging and using swords. _

_In time, no one thought the boy was anyone but another fosterling in Piandao's. The boy and the other student, Fat, became good friends that relied on one another well. They even got into plenty of trouble together growing up. That trouble necessitated them learning Pai Sho and the art of subtlety. When the boy was nearly a man, he underwent the rites of manhood that anyone in the Fire Nation had, and performed admirably. The Master was proud. _

_When the time came to send the boys on their way, he called them into his meeting room where he wrote several kanji on papers on the table and asked them to read them aloud: Honor, Loyalty, Friendship, Family, Knowledge, Art. "I have to choose an heir. Recite to me the Way of the Sword, your most important lessons."_

_Fat was a decent student and a great master of the sword, but it was not his forte as much as the management of lands and estates. It was this non-Fire Nation adoptee that raised his chin with calm grace and spoke._

"_The way of the sword is an art that belongs to no one person or nation. It belong to us all, from the selecting of the right materials human and metal, to the forging of both blade and wielder. The blade is an extension of the self. Just as the imagination is limitless, so too are the possibilities of the sword. In battle, you only have an instant to take everything in. Manipulate your surroundings and use them to your advantage. Creativity. Versatility. Intelligence. These are the traits that define a great swordsman." The young man picked up the brush and wrote a single kanji on the paper, "And lastly, you cannot take back a stroke of the blade… or a stroke of the brush." His Kanji read: Love._

_Master Piandao's eyes crinkled in the corners and he hugged them both. For they were both like the sons he never had. His heir would be this one, renamed Piandao after him as each male heir would be after. It was a family name. The given name would forever remain secret._

Master Piandao smiled at his memory and hoped he too could find another pupil like this Sokka to train and later declare as his heir. With just water and the brush, he wrote on the slate stone that held down the paper. It was a strange script not at all of Fire Nation origin. It read: Anil. (Wind as his father had named him.)

He set down the brush as the water and the name fast evaporated into nothingness. He asked Fat to arrange for travel. "I must go away on a very important business trip. Please maintain decorum here while I am away… as though I have never left. Obviously, I will not be entertaining visitors for any reason. If by some chance I do not return by the time a month has passed after Sozin's comet. You are my heir. Be sure to train someone. Take one of the orphans from the villages. Or better yet, take a refugee from the docks, someone very young." He packed quickly and left in the night.


	35. Chapter 35: Ember Island

_**Epilogue 35: Ember Island**_

"I have everything I ever wanted. But it is not at all how I expected it to be." Zuko paced his room staring at the travel back he had half packed. He put his silver band in the little pouch he carried under his belt. Mai was right. It might get him killed. Then what good would he be at protecting Faelin and his… He sat on the floor like a collapsed marionette. _My… child… my own. I am going to be a father. More so than I was… am... with Ty-min._ If anyone suspected then that child, his heir by blood would be hunted down and killed.

What irked him even more was that he was being sent to Ember Island with his sister, away from the meetings of his Father and his advisers. It felt like either a punishment or a mean to get him out of the way so "real" plans can take place. He and Mai were speaking again, but it was tenuous. He found their relationship confusing. Sometimes she hated him. Sometimes she seemed undeterred that he had vows to another woman. _She just doesn't understand._ Her affections sometimes made him emotionally confused. That overnight with her in his bed… really didn't help.

The trip to Ember Island was one of those "off" days with Mai. She sat next to him but wouldn't even look at him. She seemed blank and emotionless. It frustrated Zuko further. He had almost hoped he had an ally against his sister in her. _Maybe I was wrong._ Their time on the beach did not help. Everything he did seemed wrong. He tried to be a good "boyfriend" but it seemed to always backfire with Mai. The she dumped him in front of a room full of teenagers. _I shouldn't have called her an unfeeling dispassionate … blob._

Thrown from the teen house party, he roamed across the beach rounding a sandy alcove to where he could look up at his family's beach house. The full moon shone peacefully down guiding him. The sand softly swished as he walked barefoot in it. Since he came to the Fire islands he has felt so out of control. He took some time to move through the katas of all the martial styles he had learned, fire, earth, bits of water and air. He stood still to listen to the ocean as it pushed and pulled. His breath flowed with the oceans timing. Then he performed the moves his uncle taught him for diverting lightening. He sank to his knees in the sand with a lump in his throat.

Faelin was so far away. He could hardly sense her. He didn't know if he sensed her at all even. Mai hated him. His father didn't really seem to want him back at all. His sister was just using him. His uncle… his uncle was a prisoner with such a broken spirit it tore him apart inside. He looked up at the house wishing his mother were standing on the balcony waiting for him. He started the climb up the grassy hills and pause to look back remembering his own playful childhood with his cousin Lu Ten and his Uncle Iroh who really was more father to him back then too that his own father.

The door was locked, so he kicked it in. The house was mostly empty, save for a few family items from his childhood when the royal family used to come here. _I was six the last time we were here. LuTen was still with us. _The childhood memories flashed into his mind with every step, every time he rounded a once familiar corner. _We were happy once… weren't we?_ He looked up at the dusty family portrait. His father had a hand on his shoulder for it. _It was before Azula showed she had firebending. She was a prodigy at four years old. I was a mistake._ He vaguely remembered the last days the family was in this house. His mother and father had a horrible fight. His uncle had hauled out the kids to play at the beach. His mother came out an hour or so later crying to sit with the kids in the sand. Iroh was called in by the Ozai and more arguing ensued. Iroh joined the war effort the next day and put his son into military training. _My father never looked at me the same after that. What happened then? What was that argument about? Why was father so angry at mother? Why did he hate Uncle so much? Why did he hate me? What did I do wrong?!_ He brushed off the cobwebs of a handprint in clay and compared it to his own hand. He carried the tablet out onto the porch and sat there missing his mother and the times people loved each other and behaved like a real family. _I want to get back to Faelin and have my own real family. _But he felt trapped, he felt trapped by everything that was supposed to make him happy.

Azula came up the stairs and drew him down to the beach. He tried to be gentlemanly with Mai, but she slapped him away. At the complaints of being cold, he suggested burning some of the things from the family house to make a fire. That shocked Ty-lee. Zuko was angry, he didn't even know why he was. He provoked Ty-Lee. It also stirred questions about each other's backgrounds and lives, a moment of sharing, in a way… even if it was constantly provoked. Zuko didn't know why his mouth just kept opening and saying things he would never say. _Circus Freak. You don't believe in or care about anything._ He regretted saying those things to Ty-Lee and to Mai, but it just came out anyways.

"You want me to express myself?" Mai stood at Azula's nonchalant analysis of her. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" She yelled at Azula with all her hate and anger. Zuko tried to approach to reassure her in some way and she turned and yelled at him too, "DON'T TOUCH ME! I'm still mad at you."

Zuko soon found his mouth running on its own again confessing that he should be happy here but that he wasn't, that he was frustrated and angry… and didn't know why. Azula and her manipulative tones pushed him to answer who he was angry at. "Who are you angry at?" they all prodded.

"I'm … ANGRY AT MYSELF!" he blurted causing the campfire to blaze a moment. He turned from the girls and walked a few steps to the water's edge, "I'm so confused. I'm not sure I know the difference between wrong and right anymore."

Mai came up to him and quietly told him she cared about him. Her arm around him was a comfort and he turned his head with her gentle hand's encouragement and kissed her. He kissed her because he needed to, because he wanted to, because… he felt alone and that helped him feel less alone.

Faelin was so far away. He had been gone from her for so long.


	36. Chapter 36: Not me… I am not me

_**Epilogue 36: Not me… I am not me.**_

The days passed as Zuko pretended to be the good son. He was careful to stay away from Azula as much as he could. Mai started to come visit him more often. That night they spent together left him worried, despite Mai coldly telling him she is not so stupid as to let herself get pregnant. Although, in her mind, that would have guaranteed she wed Zuko and became lady of the heir. It was the security she wanted. Now and then, the two would order around the servants just for the fun of it, asking for random silly things. When no one was looking, he would apologize to them later. They came to know he meant no harm to them, unlike other nobles who demand the impossible.

The summer solstice grew ever closer. The eclipse would only be a week or more after that. Both plagued Zuko's mind when he was alone. He had not been back to see his uncle. He tried to convince himself that it was because he was busy in meetings with his father or under the watch of his sister through one of her friends, or simply with Mai. It was growing easier to forget why he had come and what he had left behind. Though, now and then in the depths of the night would come a distant but familiar tug. He would wake with a sudden intake of breath and whisper Faelin's name. _Gods, she must be… six month pregnant now._ He tried to picture her with a baby-filled belly. But he couldn't. Those nights made him bury a tear-filled face into his pillow.

_What have I become? How do I get out? This is not me… not me at all._

A strange sound at his door brought him to full wary wakefulness. He climbed from bed, hitched his sleeping pants into better place and tightened them as he padded silently to the bedroom door ready to see either his sister or Mai. He raised a fist and as his flingers unfurled, his hand blossomed into flame. Then he opened the door as if he were a stranger in his own home about to be assassinated. A vaguely familiar laugh nearly made him choke as the memory flashed back to him of a blue-black hair, the press of a thin but strong body against his, the sweat that trickled anxiously down his spine as his heart sped and his groin burned to know the unknown.

_Kozue?_

He stepped into the hall, his toe bumping a small cylinder that held a note rolled like a scroll. There were no other traces of her or anyone else. His fingers were numb as he picked it up. A thousand things ran through his mind. Faelin top most, although, in his heart he knew… felt… that she was fine. He hated Kozue's trick upon him. He stomped loudly back into his room. He almost slammed the door but didn't really want his sister to come to see what he was having a "tantrum" about.


	37. Chapter 37: Great Grandfather?

_**Epilogue 37: Great Granfather?.**_

_You need to know the story_

_Of your Great Grandfather's demise_

_It will reveal your own destiny_

Zuko struggled for two days trying to understand this message. He debated going to his uncle. He debated abandoning it. He grew moody as the fire within him fought his will to control it. The Summer Solstice had arrived. At dawn, he walked out to the royal wing where the paintings of the Fire Lords and their families stood tall on the walls. He stared at one of Sozin standing with small fire soldiers at his feet and the great comet streaking overhead.

Azula walked by like a hawk-cat ready to toy with a sparrow-mouse. "It's never too early to sit with the court painter, Zuko." She spoke lightly. "Make sure he gets your good side."

Zuko did not miss her meaning to either statement. One was a jab at his likelihood to survive and rule. She should have said that it was never too late, but it really could be. It was a veiled threat that he should get painted soon for he was not going to live long. The other jab was about his scar. Although, that jab bothered him less. He no longer was upset by the idea of the scar. It marked a horror in his life and a reminder of his courage to endure it. It told him of what men should never do to their children. It served as a permanent reminder to always keep a level head and never take out his anger with fire, especially on a child of his. _Faelin…_ She instantly came to mind. She was carrying his child, his heir, his secret. He had almost told Mai about the child when he told her about his love for the other woman, but he didn't. Mai was a dangerous woman when she made deadly decisions… like killing a rival. Zuko almost managed to ignore Azula when he suddenly recalled how good she was at history. "Wait. I need to ask you something." He spoke gently and carefully. "What do you know about our great-grandfather's history?"

"Oh Zuko," she roller her eyes before turning to face him. "It's so strange how your mind works." She walked back to him. "Fire Lord Sozin began the war, of course. He spent his early years secretly preparing for it, but he was as patient as he was clever. He famously waited for the comet, later renamed Sozin's comet, and used its power to launch his full-scale invasion of the world. In the end, he died a very old and successful man."

_You need to know the story_

_Of your Great Grandfather's demise_

_It will reveal your own destiny_

"But HOW did he die?" Zuko needed to know what demise befell his great-grandfather.

Azula groaned in her mind thinking her brother a simpleton. "Didn't you pay any attention in school, Zuko‌." She walked away from her brother and spoke into the air casually and with bored indifference, "He died peacefully, in his sleep. He was ancient."

Zuko glared at the painting further. Something about her story did not add up. There was no demise. Someone was lying. Although, from experience, history books often lied as they taught propaganda to children and brainwashed them into a certain way of ignorant thinking.

Later that night in the futility of his efforts to discover the fictional demise of his great grandfather, he tossed the damnable note after rereading it for the millionth time. It landed on his night lantern by his bedside. The heat of the lantern reacting with the lemon juice script that was invisible earlier but now was turning a visible light brown on the scroll. Zuko snatched the scroll back and read it eagerly.

_The Fire Sages keep the secret history in the Dragon Bone Catacombs._

Before he could change his mind, Zuko grabbed the dark cloak and a small lantern. He stuffed the note scroll into his belt and left his bed chamber. With all the spying skills he learned as the Blue Spirit and all the assassin skills he learn with Mu-Tan, he vanished through the temple partially considering abandoning this quest entirely and making his way back to Faelin in Ba Sing Se. But his uncle was still here. Also, he needed to find a way to know what was going on and if he could help end this war somehow from the inside. He had almost forgotten his mission here…. Forgotten his destiny. _What is my destiny?_

_You need to know the story_

_Of your Great Grandfather's demise_

_It will reveal your own destiny_

He hurried out and down the volcanic mountain side to the catacombs of the royal family. The temple was among the few left in the Islands. Today's decree from his father, the Fire Lord, had been to dismantle all the local temples and turn them into military training bases. His father was still angry with the Fire Sages who helped the avatar last year. They were banned from the Crescent Isle and the Fire Sages Temple. Now they were permitted only to maintain the ancestral temple and catacomb. Fire Lord Ozai had even hand picked the sages he was permitting to hand the catacombs and imprisoned or executed the rest. It made Zuko's blood boil then run cold. He touched the little pouch under his belt that held the lock of hair of a child that died for these reasons. The child was one of several orphans training in a local temple long ago when Zuko had first lost contact with Faelin. He fondled the silver band at his wrist while leaning in a dark corner near the back entry to the temple. Mai was right, it was a risk. He slipped it off his wrist and into the small pouch with the lock of hair.

Zuko slipped in like a shadow. No one would expect him to sneak in here. He peered around a pillar and watched a sage firebend into the floor revealing a hidden stairwell. Zuko waited for hours as the sage came out and left. When he was sure no one was around, he did as the sage did and opened the floor with fire. The stairs wound into darkness below. On fast silent feet he descended into a lit chamber, more like a corridor. Along the walls of the corridor were the skulls of the dragons hunted to extinction. His uncle was the last man to bring back a dragon skull. He touched each wondering what these great beast must have been like. In history, Sozin was said to have had one as a pet, intelligent and fierce. _So why hunt them out? Was there such glory?_ Though he agreed there must have been. To hunt something almost as intelligent as a human would make the hunt much more challenging and dangerous.

At the end of the corridor was a door that looked like a Fire Lord. Zuko bent some fire into the medallion. As the fire raged through the door and lit the eyes and mouth of the Fire Lord fresco, the door unlocked and slip open. The catacombs of the royal family lay beyond. There were sarcophagi of cremated ashes of the dead all around. Dusty, cobweb covered scrolls and texts. Other doors to other chambers abandoned in the neglected chamber. Clearly, Fire Lord Ozai no longer really honored the ancestors here by actually maintaining this catacomb respectfully. Perhaps he was using another corridor or chamber to store secrets. Maybe, he hired the few sages to simply make sure no one tampered with the truths currently hidden here. _I had no trouble getting in. My father is a fool._

Then he gasped as he let his hood fall back and the lantern illuminate a large dragon statue that housed both the ashes of Sozin and his dragon, for they had been burned and buried together. Around the base of the dragon statue, almost obscured in dust, were scroll boxes marked, "The final testament of Fire Lord Sozin." Zuko read it aloud and quickly closed the door to read in privacy.

The tale unfolded… Sozin and Roku were once best friends. Sozin teased Roku much about his crush on Ta Min, a girl who barely ever noticed the tall youth. How Sozin learned at their birthday that Roku was the avatar and the shock and sadness that followed as these two dear friends had to be separated for reasons of training. Roku had to learn to master the elements. Sozin had to learn to be a great Fire Lord. Roku could not take any worldly possessions. Sozin gave him his royal artifact to wear in his hair, a symbol of friendship from a crown prince to an avatar.

A thought crept into Zuko's mind, _Some friendships are so strong, they can even transcend lifetimes. _Zuko pondered this remembers when he escaped with Aang from Admiral Zhao and how Aang had asked that it things were different, if they could have been friends. He sighed and read on. It was twelve years before Sozin and Roku met again, both changed men, both grown up with new goals in their lives. Sozin was Fire Lord and Roku was a fully realized avatar. They were still friends, even when Roku finally did wed Ta Min. The tale soured from their as Sozin's dream was revealed: to share their wealth and prosperity with the world with the Fire Nation to rule it all. This was the propaganda Zuko had grown up with. This was the lie that thinly veiled domination and tyranny. Roku already saw this and here is where the friends split ways. Roku warned Sozin not to do this, but he did anyways. Roku was enjoying a peaceful life on one of the volcanic islands with his wife and children when he got news of the new colonies on the north peninsula of the mainlands. He made his way to the Fire Lord's palace where Roku and Sozin fought fiercely. Sozin confessed his shame… at losing against the avatar.

For twenty five years, Roku lived with his family and saw his own son married and ready to have children. It was then that the dormant volcano of Roku's island erupted in devastating fire and fury. It was visibly even from the Palace. Sozin went upon his dragon to help, to see the people off to safety. Volcanic gasses and ash were taking their toll on the old avatar. Then the volcanoes twin erupted as Sozin arrived to the rescue. Together fighting nature itself. Here when Roku was dying from the toxic fumes and begging for help, here Sozin seized his chance.

_Without you, all my plans are suddenly possible._

Zuko gasped. This betrayal was… he sighed… apparently in the bloodline. Zuko remembered his father betraying his uncle for the throne. He knows his sister's ruthlessness. She would not hesitate if she had the opportunity to be Fire Lord. Zuko shuddered at the thought of his sister ruling. Zuko read the last lines:

_With Roku gone, and the great comet returning, the timing was perfect to change the world. I knew the next avatar would be born an air nomad. So I wiped out the air temples. But somehow, the new avatar eluded me. I wasted the remainder of my life searching in vain. I know he's hiding out there somewhere. The Fire Nation's greatest threat…the last airbender._

Azula was right. Sozin died of old age. He passed on his passion for conquest and world domination to his son Azulon, along with the hunt for the avatar. Azulon in turn inflicted the ambition onto his sons. Zuko wondered what made Iroh have a change in heart. It could not have been simply the death of Lu Ten. He wondered slightly what happened to Roku's family and the artifact that was still seen to have been in Roku's hair according to any and all paintings and statues of Roku he had seen. His great grandfather didn't die of any horrible demise. He died, as Azula said, peacefully in his sleep an old man… having never found the avatar.

_There is no demise unless you consider never having found the avatar a demise. I found the avatar. What does that mean? I am not about to kill him._

That one thought made him different but did not at all define his destiny. He searched the room frantically for more clues. _This can't be it. Where's the rest!?!_

Having been up all night and in a right foul mood with his confusion he stormed over to the prison. The guards all moved out of his way when they saw the look in his eyes. The fire of the Summer Solstice still burning strong in Zuko and a scary thing to see for anyone opposing him. Zuko had a notion. He knew his uncle knew something about all this. And at this time of year, his uncle should be strong enough to break free of the prison himself.

But he hadn't.

He raged at the old man sitting bedraggled in the cell. "You sent this, didn't you‌ I found the secret history. Which, by the way should be renamed "the history most people already know. The note said that I needed to know about my great-grandfather's death, but he was still alive in the end."

Iroh looked up sadly at Zuko, "No… he wasn't."

Zuko was irked and confused, "What are you talking about?"

"You have more than one great-grandfather, Prince Zuko. Sozin was your father's grandfather. Your mother's grandfather was Avatar Roku." Iroh explained.

"Why are you telling me this‌?!" The worlds of shock tumbled from Zuko's lips.

"Because understanding the struggle between your two great-grandfathers, can help you better understand the battle within yourself. Evil and good are always at war inside you, Zuko. It is your nature, your legacy. But there is a bright side. What happened generations ago can be resolved now… by you. Because of your legacy, you alone can cleanse the sins of our family and the fire nation. Born in you, along with all this strife, is the power to restore _balance_ to the world." Iroh removed a brick from the wall that hid the bundle he had Kozue steal for him. He unwrapped the bundle and held it out to his nephew. "This is a royal artifact. It's supposed to be worn by the crown prince."

His uncle's words sank deep as he thought of all he had experienced till now, thought about what honor meant. Honor is the Law, love is the bond. In the belly of a priestess was his heir… his prince… someone he could teach to restore balance if he himself could not achieve it. How he knew it was a boy, he did not know. It was just a strong feeling. He carefully took the artifact from his uncle in an almost shaking hand. The head dress of a proper prince, the very head dress of Avatar Roku. Zuko looked at his uncle as realization showed in his eyes. His fate was indeed tied deeply to Avatar Aang's. Iroh simply nodded.

_I need to get out… I need to go. I need to know my father's plans. The day of Black Son is in a few days._

There was a war meeting planned for tomorrow. Time was suddenly so short. Zuko gripped the head piece firmly and ran from the prison back to the palace.


	38. Chapter 38: Digging Into the Family Tree

_**Epilogue 38: digging up the roots of the family tree**_

Zuko skipped breakfast and headed right for the archives room. His brooding look made many scurry from his path. He scanned the scrolls and documents. "Where is it!?" With a snarl he grabbed one of the scribes and snarled, "Find my mother's lineage chart… now."

The young scribe quakes before Zuko and dropped to the ground to kowtow like a slave. The action remembered Zuko of those who did so in Ba Sing Se and how he hated the slavery now. He wanted to rage at this man for giving up on freedom. The scribe slunk away swiftly and searched till he found at least a small scroll. He held it out to Zuko with shaking hands. Zuko snatched it. "Is that all?" he demanded. The scribe nodded in fear. Zuko stormed away and paused at the door. "If anyone asks, I was never here. If you tell, I will kill you." The scribe nearly fainted with relief when the Fire Prince left.

Then he climbed the stairs out of the archives rooms and went straight back to his chambers and locked the door and the window. The hot weather bakes the room some and he wished for the more temperate climate of Ba Sing Se or at least a waterbender to make some cool iced tea.

He swept his arm across his desk shoving everything to the floor. The now clear desk looked stark, but only for a moment. Zuko pulled the antique hairpiece from his pocket and set it on the desk. He unfolded the cloth and stared at it for many minutes. It was Avatar Roku's. It was Sozin's. It represented many things: Prince of the Fire Nation and heir, separation and loneliness, friendship. _At one time the Fire Lord and the Avatar were friends._

He remembered Aang's words to him about how maybe they could be friends. He remembered sitting and serving tea to Aang and his group in the Jasmine Dragon with his uncle. He remembered Katara healing Faelin. He then reminded himself that he was on a mission… for her… to try to make a safer place to raise their... son. He knew for some certainty that it was a boy. He knew, because she knew.

He touched the headpiece, considering replacing the smaller one in his own hair now with it. Or, maybe he out to give it to Aang. No, he decided we wonted to give it to his son.

He sat and unrolled the scroll across the desk, reaching to the floor for random objects to hold down each side. He read Ursa's lineage. The dates being in reference to Sozin's Comet. BSC (Before Sozin's Comet) and ASC (After Sozin's Comet). This was a rewriting then of the lineage, a recent copy. Anything BSC was logged in other terms, but he could not remember his ancient history near so well.

_Heritage:_

_Ursa and Shiyu (brother) of Linaia (mother) and Utoska (father)_

_Utoska and Tagawa (brother) and Himitsu (sister) of Kaja (father) and Shia (mother)_

_Linaia of __Roku (father & Avatar)__ and Ta Min (mother)_

Zuko stopped reading after that. That was the proof he had sought. Roku's name was stricken out. In fact the entirety of that line was. There was a note at the top of the scroll that stated something that made Zuko's go briefly cold.

_Ursa, traitor, disgrace to the family line. Banished unto death. _

Banished to where till she dies? He checked through the whole scroll. It did not say. He skipped past the other historical notes to see about his own name, wondering maybe if it had been stricken from the record.

_Ursa wed Fire Lord Ozai (year 80 ASC Summer Solstice)_

_Ursa birthed two children: Zuko (year 82 ASC Winter Solstice) and Azula (year 85 ASC Summer Solstice)_

Zuko cursed. His sister's birthday was coming up and he didn't get her anything. He didn't really want to either. Well, that was not true… he wanted to give her something, but it wasn't anything nice at all. Deciding then it was not worth him bothering, she never did anything for his birthday.

He thought about his history a bit looking at these dates. Frowning, something didn't make sense. If he was born in year 82, then he was conceived earlier that year in spring. However, according to history, his father was out at war till almost the Summer Solstice that year. He did further counting and realized that even though he was supposedly born early, he would have not been a viable child born so early to have been conceived on his father's return. _Ozai… is not my father… Then… who is?_ This record would never tell. His uncle must know. It was among many questions he wanted to ask people. Where was his mother? How was she? Is she alive or dead? Who was his real father? Was this man alive or dead? _Am I actually heir?_

Belatedly he remembered to breathe as his lungs protested. He wanted to keep this scroll. But it being missing would raise too much suspicion. He made a copy of it and returned it to the scribe. The copy, he wanted to place in the archives of the Fire Sages Temple. He wondered if the ruins were stable enough. Then he recalled a name from the scroll, Shiyu.

_Shiyu is one of the Fire Sages. He was the one who helped Aang a couple years ago._ Zuko wondered if that man was alive or dead. That man was his uncle. He never knew… His mother never discussed the religious side of the family. His father had such distaste for it. But then, he married Ursa because… she was a Fire Priestess. That was one way to secure the throne. Zuko realized many things that moment. The largest was that his father had been plotting for the throne since before Zuko was born. The other was that marrying a priestess of Fire helped seal the throne and the ties to the sages. _I need to wed Faelin… before our son is born._ The Fire Sages were now only in this palace or in the catacombs where Ozai could keep relatively close track of them.

After dropping off the original scroll with the scared scribe, Zuko returned to the catacombs. He did indeed find Shiyu, shackled to a desk as several of the sages were when they were working on political texts. Shiyu looked up at Zuko with tired eyes. Zuko had no idea what to say. He shoved the scrap of copied notes at him. This man was his uncle too. Both of his uncles were now prisoners for doing the right thing. Zuko looked around and saw that no one was there but them. He had learned about metals from the smithing job he had in Ba Sing Se and used that knowledge to heat and break the metal shackles on Shiyu. The sage looked aghast at the prince. Zuko spoke quietly, "Go uncle, back to the temple. There is an island just off its coast called Kfar Aish."

The sage stood and bowed to Zuko, "I have a wife and son there already."

"Guard my mother's lineage and try to rebuild the temple and the halls of lords and ladies. One day, I want my son to see his family in truth." It was the closest Zuko would come to giving away that he had a son. The sage nodded and took the escape and freedom offered to him.

Zuko wished he could do that for his Uncle Iroh.


	39. Chapter 39: National Flower

_**Epilogue 39: National Flower**_

Zuko was brooding all day. He dragged his feet. He was moody and snappish. His father was planning a War Meeting. Zuko wasn't sure what he should do. He wasn't invited. Although, it was not really surprising considering the last War Meeting Zuko had attended. This is why he was here too after all, to find out what the plans were. If he could, he wanted to sabotage them. The Day of Black Sun was coming so swiftly. He hadn't heard anything about it here, so maybe no one knew it was going to happen. He just needed to bide his time a little and then use that day to his advantage.

Bide his time. He had to pretend to love Mai to avoid his sister's further suspicion. Mai was remarkably easy to be with. She was not the unemotional woman he had come to know her as. She was actually witty, intense, and humorous. If he did not have a child on the way with Faelin, he might actually have enjoyed taking Mai as his bride. However, Mai served Azula and obeyed Azula's every wish.

He watched the servants carry bouquets of Fire Lilies down the halls to various rooms in preparation for the Summer Solstice. Faelin would be six months pregnant. He thought how the Fire Lilies reminded him of her fiery red hair. In a way, that was the reason for the Fire Lily.

_In the early days of the Fire Nation as the people grew and learned to control the fiery gifts of the god Agni, the people divided into two cultures. The Sun Warriors and the Fire Sages. The Sun Warriors protected the people, worked with the great dragons who breathed fire and learned how to use firebending for combat, and followed the cycles of the sun to help predict the best times of planting and harvesting and fishing. The Fire Sages guided the people spiritually, taught the rites of passage and the rituals of fire within the homes, and were attuned to the ways of the volcanoes._

_Both groups worked together. They shared some common skills: firebending and the mining and smithing of gold. To celebrate this union of the people in one nation, Agni presented them both with a flower symbolic of growth and prosperity and what it means to be the People of Fire, Fire Nation. The sun's rays touched the center of a day lily turning it the vibrant yellow of the gold the nation prospered with. Then the red lava of the earth, also of Agni, painted the petals hues of orange and red._

_These came to represent the people. May they always blood and grow in abundance despite the harsh climates of the Fire Islands. May they remember the golden wealth bestowed upon them and share it with others. May the remember the gift of firebending, honor Fire, and remember the passionate seeds planted deep in every soul._

_And thus the Fire Lily was created to represent the people of the Fire nation. Its colors were seen in all the fashions to come, especially those of the sages and royal families. Its glory was evident in the vast fields they grew on every isle of the Fire islands. At Summer Solstice they graced every home with bouquets._

_The Fire Lily. National symbolic flower of the Fire Nation._

There were many meanings to giving someone Fire Lilies. One was for love and one was for loyalty and one was to remind them of the Nation they should be honoring. He asked the servants to send a bouquet to Mai's private little house on the palace grounds.

Then he called the servant back. "Later tonight, bring to me a Fire Lily, a White Lily, and some turtle-duck feathers…. After dinner to my room." The servant looked a bit baffled. Apparently Zuko was on one of his randomly ordering servants to do weird things again trips. The servant kowtowed to Zuko and hurried off to do the prince's bidding.

He plucked a Fire Lily from a vase in one of the halls on his way outside. He held it up to the hot sun. "A symbol of our nation. How strange for such a beautiful and peaceful thing to be that. A symbol of passion and wealth." But then he realized that the fire Nation was not always at war. Sometimes it was a peaceful wealthy nation. Now everything was poured into the war. And, he had no idea what the plans for this war were. In his frustration he fiercely engulfed the flower in flames till it was ash. He held out his hand as a servant rushed over to wipe it clean.

He needed to go live a lie… a lie of love and visit Mai. Maybe that will distract him from this cursed War Meeting. She tried to cheer him up with the suggestion of ordering the servants to do ridiculous things. He moped on her sofa. When Azula waltzed in, he wanted to hit her just because his mood was foul. Instead, he sat dumb when she told him he was expected at that meeting after all, because he was heir he didn't need an invitation. For a moment he felt completely foolish. Azula knew it and reveled in Zuko's misery.


	40. Chapter 40: War Meeting

_**Epilogue 40: War Meeting**_

Zuko stood outside the doors to the War Room, remembering the last time he was in this room. He rested his hand upon it and closed his eyes. His uncle had supported his entry last time, had advised him not to say a word, and yet he spoke out. A general was going to sacrifice a whole division of new Fire Nation soldiers just to strike an advantageous blow against the Earth Kingdom. He could not believe what he heard. He voiced his concern at the dishonor and injustice of the act. It ended badly. It ended with his father searing his face and exiling him. He took in a nervous breath. _I am supposed to be here. I am expected. I won't speak out of turn this time._ He wished his uncle were here for support or advice. It turned his stomach knowing his uncle, Dragon of the West, was wasting away in prison. He squeezed his eyes shut burying how badly he missed his Uncle Iroh and pushed open the doors.

Ozai and all the military leaders and advisors sat ready and waiting around a large map of the world with the markers of troop movements. "Welcome, my son. Come Prince Zuko. Take your place." Zuko stroke over with as impassive an expression as he could manage and approached the seat to the right of his father. He bowed deeply and sat to oversee the meeting.

He sat there silently, like the perfect obedient prince, the son his father wanted. Yet it roiled as wrong within him. It didn't feel like his place. It didn't feel right. Worse, they spoke of plans Zuko was sure they should not have known anything about. The Day of Black Sun. Only a handful of people knew this. Mu-tan, the Avatar. And yet, somehow now everyone in this room. They were preparing for the day of the eclipse where for a few short minutes there will be no access to firebending. Sweat sliced down Zuko's spine as he listened to their plans. The meeting then turned to the plan for the return of Sozin's Comet. Zuko couldn't have found his voice if he wanted to. His father planned to practically annihilate most of the known world. Using the comet's power to render the other nations as extinct as the Air Nomads. World genocide.

_Mu-tan was right. Uncle… was right. But what can I do? I… I have to do something! So many people are going to die… Faelin… my… my child._

On that moment he understood all the worry and concern his uncle had shown him, the worry and concern a father should have for a son. They were suddenly his own worries and concerns. He hoped word got to them. He prayed they made some kind of escape.

After the meeting he walked with Mai to the great paintings of the Fire Lords. He stood before the one of his father and relayed to Mai just a small amount of his feelings of the meeting. He spoke with such detachment, internalizing the truths and the lies. Mai seems to sense something was wrong. He had a look in his eyes that spoke of faraway concerns. "Zuko. Stay with me." She loved him, she realized. She wanted very much for him to forget that waif from Ba Sing Se.

"I can't, Mai. I have to go prepare."

She stood alone watching him march down a corridor like a soldier off on a suicide mission. _Was the meeting that bad? What happened in it? Did the Fire Lord order Zuko on a mission?_ She gritted her teeth hating always being left out. Azula did this to her all the time, left her out of the crucial and yet expected her to just jump when she was asked to.

* * *

A/N: I have not abandoned this. I thank Conzu for inspiring me to continue.


	41. Chapter 41: Iroh Breaks Free

_**Epilogue 41: Iroh Breaks Free**_

"Bet yer tired of bein' in this cell, old man," sneared a greying guard as he filed his nails. He sat lazily on a bench outside Iroh's prison cell. "Well too bad. Yer never stepping foot outside these walls again."

A young female guard came in with a tray of food. She dressed in a cleaner cut than the older guard, new to her position in the security forces. She tried not to scowl at the older man's taunting. She had been raised with stories of the Great General Iroh, the man who looked so crushed and fading behind those bars. Her father had whispered to her about how wrong it was to imprison him. They were sympathizers of the peoples and colonies, but not in any position to do anything about it. The least she could do was be kind to the prisoner she guarded. "Breakfast," she called cheerily despite the gloom in the room.

The older guard stood since his replacement had arrived. "Careful Ming. Don't get too close. His stench will knock you right out!" He left the area, his cruel laughter echoing in his wake.

She spoke gently to Iroh, "I snuck in some white jade tea. I know how you like rare teas." She set the tray down and slid it in through the slot.

For the first time in all his stay, Iroh spoke in is warm gravelling voice, "Thank you Ming." He took up the tea and savored it. "Ever since I have been put in here, you have been very kind to me." He worried for her in the days to come. He wished to return her kindness.

Later she returned with Lunch, encouraged by his earlier moment of speech. "Lunch time, "General Iroh," she called, "and this time, I brought you an extra bowl of rice" she whispered when another guard passed through the hallway.

He smiled for her. "Thank you, Ming. Your gestures of kindness have made my days in prison." He leveled his eyes with hers. They no longer looked tired or hopeless, like he had lifted an invisible veil. He smiled gently again. "I think you should take the rest of the day off."

"What?" she declared surprised.

Iroh came close to the bars insisting, "You don't look well. Maybe you should go home and rest." She protested that she felt fine. His eyes became hard as his tone sounded firm, "Trust me. It is better than you are not here this afternoon."

Understand filled her and she silently nodded and took her leave. She did not advise the guards of anything, not even her leaving.

Iroh hung his head in prayer for his nephew. _Zuko, my son, please, never forget who you are. And maybe one day I will tell you who your real father is. Do the right thing, Zuko. Make the right choices. We are all out of time. It has to be now._

The older cruel guard came to take the girl's place. It was his last mistake. Iroh threw off his soiled rags, flexed his muscles. The guard's eyes widened. The eclipse passed and Iroh blasted through the bars. The older guard impacted the wall hard enough to crack ribs and almost his skull. Iroh let himself out of the prison, rendering other guards as he had the first. The shores of a small fishing village would not be far, nor was passage to Piandao's. From there he could make his way to a meeting point where he expected the rest of the White Lotus awaited him.


	42. Chapter 42: Zuko's Choice

_**Epilogue 42: Zuko's Choice**_

Zuko locked himself in his room for the remainder of the afternoon and evening. He lit candles and meditated as he had learned in Ba Sing Se. He breathed slowly through each chakra as Mu-tan taught him. He fingered the silver band on his wrist. He swore an oath, deeper than anything anyone could imagine. What his father planned send alarm bells ringing through every fiber of Zuko's body warning him of the dangers to Faelin this would bring.

With thought of Faelin in his heart, he removed the armor and accoutrements of his station of prince and heir that he had to wear to the formal war meeting. His hair hung down into his eyes all shaggy. He could almost feel Faelins' fingers brushing it back for him. At his low desk, she smoother out a sheet of rice paper already forming the hard words we would script upon it. The time was now to make a firm decision. He thought he could save Iroh. He thought he might be able to bring about change from within these palace walls. He knew now that he could not. He could not change the people around him: Mai, Azula, Ozai. He could only change himself. He had changed himself, in Ba Sing Se. And his last acts in that city were shameful. The words flowed from his hands in delicate trained script.

When he was done with his letter, he wrapped a dark cloak about his shoulders. He paused before a picture of him and Mai. "I'm sorry, Mai." He was. Had things in Ba Sing Se never happened, perhaps he would have taken Mai with him. He hoped she would understand. He wrote what he could in the letter for her. He left it on a pillow with instructions from a servant outside to let Mai know there is a message for her in his room. He would not be here when she opened and read it though. He was pretty sure he would not be back in this palace ever again in his life.

He stole himself away to the shrine where he had placed a picture of his mother. In the abandoned nook dedicated to her, he knelt in the darkness and lit a candle on her shrine. He knew she was not dead. Prayed she was not. But there was no way to reach her, no way to speak to her. He understood now why she did the things she had done. To save his life and to get away from Ozai, she made great sacrifices.

"I know I have made bad choices," he whispered, bowing his head in shame. "But today, I am going to set things right." A few travel belongings and his twin blades, a bedroll and tent, some food provisions, and his Blue Spirit mask with the dark assassin clothes he earned from Mu-tan were strapped across his back. He snuck from shadow to shadow to and small air balloon basket. He dragged it into hiding and deposited his gear within. Then he draped some camouflage over it. He had a couple more things to do before he departed. He looked up at the sun. The eclipse would be soon and last no more than eight minutes. He was running out of time.

He yanked up the grill nearby to the sewers and dropped down to the passage below where it would connect with the secret escape tunnels of the palace. With a grunt, he pulled the cover back into place. In the tunnel, he looked from one end to the other then up one last time. This was it. The time was now. He pulled his hood up vaguely recalling his mother's very same gesture before she did the unthinkable. He could guess now, she murdered Azulon and forged his letter declaring Ozai king in order to protect Zuko. He wondered why he was so important that a priestess would do such a thing. But he was about to commit patricide. So the question was moot. He had never taken a life before and hoped his determination would not fail him now.


	43. Chapter 43: Zuko Faces the Fire Lord

A/N Sorry... this is a LONG one...

* * *

_**Epilogue 43: Zuko Faces the Fire Lord**_

Zuko flattened himself against the dark wall as palace guards and citizens made their retreats to designated areas. Voiced shouted out news, orders, directions. The invasion had begun. He wished he could have warned them all that Ozai knew. He silently damned Azula, certain she had found out and told the Fire Lord. He still did not want to regard the man as his father. This man, like Azula, was drunk on power, hungry for more, and positively insane. Insanity supposedly ran through the family along with some other unpleasant inherited things, like cancer of the stomach and heart problems. Zuko hoped he didn't have any of those, especially the insanity and prayed that if he carried it thet it did not pass to his child within Faelin's belly.

On swift trained feet, Zuko darted through the escape tunnels. He ended in the main secret bunker for the Fire Lord. He could hear Azula's voice beyond ordering people into offensive and defensive positions. Ozai would not be there. No, he would be in the safe family retreat room. He navigated through the lava pools under the palace to a location only members of the family had been taught to know by heart. It had been years since he last came here.

He let out a slow breath. "I am ready to face you." Ready, with the eclipse present to block their firebending. But Zuko knew, he had lived for almost a year not firebending. He learned other ways to fight, even to kill if he had to. The avatar did not know firebending and was so young, too young, not ready to face the Fire Lord. But he was ready. Ready to kill. He slid open the door.

Ozai sat sipping tea on the dais in the back of the room. A message runner by his side and a row of elite guards lined in front. "Prince Zuko, what are you doing here?" He was sure he sent word for Zuko to meet Azula and coordinate the secondary defensive.

The eclipse had begun. Zuko could sense it. By the looks of the guards, they could not. It must be because he was trained with his chakras and to be more attuned to things like this. He walked forward. The guards parted for him. "Zuko, why are you here?" Ozai asked suspiciously.

"I am here to tell the truth." He stated with surety.

His answering tone was so like Azula's that Zuko knew where she learned it from. "Telling the truth in the middle of an eclipse. This should be interesting." He waved away the message runner and the guards. Father and son faced each other with the calm before a storm between them till the room was empty of all other people.

_No witnesses,_ thought Zuko, _No one to see Ozai kill me… or see me kill him. _"First of all, in Ba Sing Se, it was Azula who took down the Avatar. Not me." This was not really the truth he wanted to state, but a test to see if it was true that Azula always lies.

"Why would she lie to me about that?" Ozai seemed amused rather than shocked in any way.

"Because the avatar is not dead." This was the real truth he figured would shock his father. "He's alive."

"WHAT?" Ozai snarled in impotent fury.

Zuko calmly continued, "In fact, he's probably leading this invasion. He could be on his way here right now."

"GET OUT! Get out of my sight right now if you know what's good for you."

But Zuko was no longer a small easily frightened boy. He had grown up in his exile. He was going to be a father; one he promised would never be as cruel as this one. "That's another thing. I am not taking orders from you anymore." Somewhere inside himself was a steadiness he never felt before in his father's presence. It felt like… like Faelin, singing strength into him, singing calm and clarity.

"You will obey me, or this defiant breath will be your last!" growled Ozai.

Mu-tan's voice echoed in Zuko's mind how anger upset the balance and fogs the mind. An angry opponent is a an opponent halfway to defeat already.

Ozai stood preparing to storm down the steps of the dais toward Zuko. The twin blade on Zuko's back were drawn with an audible _shing_. "Think again," declared Zuko. "I am going to speak my mind." He stood in a ready stance armed where his father was not, so dependent on firebending that Ozai never bothered with weaponry. "And YOU are going to listen."

In a huff, Ozai sat. It would be minutes before the eclipse was over. He could wait out Zuko's words before killing him.

"For so long, all I wanted was for you to love me… to accept me. I thought it was my honor that I wanted. But really, I was just trying to please you. You. My father. Who banished me just for talking out of turn. My father, who challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy, to an Agni Kai. How can you possibly justify a duel with a child?" Zuko was not a child any longer.

"It was to teach you respect."

"It was cruel! And it was wrong." So many things Zuko needed to say, needed to get off his chest, needed out in the open so they could stop festering within him.

"And you have learned nothing."

"No. I have learned everything… And I had to learn it on my own. Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, our war was our way of sharing our greatness with the world. But what an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it. We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself," here was the truth he wanted to express and his hope that Ozai could be reasoned with even just a little, "we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness." He knew he sounded like his uncle. These were his uncle's very words. Now they were his own as well.

Ozai threw back his head and laughed. "Ha ha ha! Your uncle has gotten to you, hasn't he?" There would be no reasoning apparently.

Zuko breathed in the peace and allowed the love for his uncle to fill him. "Yes, he has." Iroh more than earned that love, earned respect and honor, but most of all Zuko's love.

Ozai's face twisted in disgust, jealousy, anger and hatred.

"After I leave here today, I am going to free Uncle Iroh from his prison. And I am going to beg for his forgiveness. He's the one who has been a real father to me all these years, all my life really."

Mockery added to Ozai's expressions, "Bwaha! That is just beautiful. Then he could pass on to you the ways of tea and failure."

Auko was not finished yet. "But I have come to a more important decision. I am going to join the avatar. And I am going to help him defeat you." He knew he was out of time. He would not be able to kill Ozai himself. And thinking about it, it was not his destiny to defeat the Fire Lord. It was Aang's. He had no right to take that away from him.

A frightening kind of calm radiated now from Ozai, the anger simply gone, transformed into something else. "Really? Well since you are a full blown traitor now and want me gone, why wait?" He taunted, "I'm powerless. You've got your swords. Why don't you just do it now?"

He lowered his swords, "Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the avatar's destiny." He sheathed his swords and turns his back on Ozai, no longer a father to him. "Goodbye."

Ozai flushed purple at the many insults, but especially the last being Zuko's back. "COWARD!" he yelled, "You think you are brave enough to face me, but you will only do it during the eclipse."

Ozai would never know the mercy Zuko had given him by deciding now to slice him to pieces there. But there was no honor is cutting down a man who could not actually defend himself. Zuko kept walking.

"If you had any real courage, you would stick around until the sun comes out." Ozai baited Zuko. With a sly grin and threw in, "Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?"

Zuko slowed his steps and stopped. He turned to see Ozai grin with satisfaction. "What happened that night?" He dared ask in the few seconds remaining.

Ozai needed to hold Zuko here just long enough. "My father, Azulon, bade me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son. And, I was going to do it. Your mother found out and swore she would protect you at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne. So she proposed a plan, a plan in which I would become Fire Lord. And your life would be spared." Zuko gritted his teeth, but this was not anything he didn't already know or have figured out. "Your mother did vicious treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason she was banished."

The tears came unbidden to Zuko with this confirmation, "So… she is alive."

"Perhaps. Now I realize that banishment is far to merciful a punishment for treason. Your penalty will be far steeper." He closed his eyes breathing in the fresh energy of the sun creeping out from behind the eclipse. His eyes snapped open and with speed Zuko hardly could believe, was whirling lightning about him to strike Zuko down dead.

Iroh's lesson in catching and redirecting lightning acted within his muscles before he even thought about what to do. He caught the force, pulled it deep within to his stomach till he shook and his hair stood on end, then threw it right back at Ozai. It blasted the dais to pieces, throwing Ozai against the back wall. But his aim had been off. He missed the Fire Lord.

In the commotion of debris, fire rose around Ozai with his rage. The dust settled. Zuko was gone. "AAAAHHHH!" The room was briefly engulfed in flames.

Zuko dashed through the tunnels back to the shrine, out the sewer grate. Dark blobs filled the skies as he saw many more air balloon rise in what would be the final assault on the invading people. He almost took to the skies behind them, eyes blurred with too many emotions.

_Uncle Iroh_.

He thundered through the empty streets to the prison and across the bridge. There were no guards. Correction, there was a charred body at the entrance. It made no sense. He ran inside. Guards were in a broken tumble, scattered here and there. Did Azula get here before him? Did she make it look like a break in only to kill Iroh before Zuko could free him? His heart pounded in his throat as he skidded through the door into the cell chamber that held Iroh.

The bars were smashed. A guard groaned on the floor. He grabbed the collar of the guard and shook him to consciousness, "Where is he? What happened here?"

The hurting older guard stammered, "I… I never seen nuthin like it… He … he was… like a one man army!"

It took a second to sink in that Iroh came around and broke out on his own, was likely planning it the whole time he was in there. Leaving Zuko behind. A moment of panic and abandonment choked him. He wrapped his fingers around the silver band and his wrist and steadied his breathing. He was on his own. He would have to find his uncle and beg forgiveness later. Time was slipping away if he wanted to make his own escape.

He ran back to his hidden air balloon and fired it up. It rose into the air with him. The palace grew smaller and smaller. He looked away from it and faced forward. _No looking back. You made your choice already. Now it is time to find the avatar or my uncle, whichever is easiest at the moment._

As it would turn out, the avatar was easier to follow. The avatar needed to learn firebending and Zuko was more than willing to teach him. Then, the avatar could face Ozai… and end him.


	44. Chapter 44: Letter to Mai

_**Epilogue 44: Letter to Mai**_

_Dear Mai,_

_I wish I had known of your love for me ages ago. I wish, I had known it while I was in exile. It would have given me hope and strength and courage through the trials of the last few years. I wish I had found you sooner. And I wish I could love you back as much as you love me. _

_You are so beautiful and tempting. So smart and wonderfully dangerous. But I cannot continue this lie between us. It is unfair to you and to me and to the woman I am already committed to. You knew this. I know you hoped I would steer away from her and be with you. But there are other issues that cannot be overlooked. I have obligations. Promises._

_Please, I hope you will understand._

_And please, do not become a pawn of my sister. I do care about you and know you are smarter than that. Azula always lies. Remember that. And remember, what we shared, did mean a great deal to me. I am sorry for the shames of the lines we crossed and wish I could go back in time and not cross them. _

_I have to go. The dishonorable acts of war and treachery that my family have committed are unbearable. I want no part of them. They need to be stopped, before they truly do destroy the world. Find some place safe. Ozai, I cannot call him father, plans to use the power of the comet the wipe out most of the known world. The repercussions will render it unviable for all peoples. A balance is necessary. A balance of elements and nations. I wish I could explain better. Please take care of yourself. Please be careful._

_With affection,_

_Zuko_

_Ps… I am off to teach the avatar firebending. Ozai must be stopped and he is the only one who can do it._

Mai read the letter over and over, picking it apart. Politically she understood what was happening and on some levels agreed with Zuko and his actions. On a relationship level, she failed to keep him from that priestess of Ba Sing Se. The alarms rang for an evacuation. She stuffed the letter into one of her throwing knife sheaths leaving the blade where the letter was on a pillow in Zuko's bed chamber. Let them think she will kill him when she sees him next. She just might. _How dare he dump me… by letter._ In truth though, she wanted to bury her dagger between those sea-colored eyes into the red-headed skull.

She turned and joined the evacuating nobles of the court. To hell with Azula for the moment. She can have her little war with her brother. It was her fault all this happened. Mai had no intention of joined Azula for this mission against the invasion. Apparently, neither did Ty-lee. The two friends escaped with the rest of the palace personnel.


	45. Chapter 45: Escape into Exile

_**Epilogue 45: Escaping into Exile**_

They left behind good friends. They left behind family. They lost to battle on the Day of Black Sun. Aang steered Appa north over volcanic islands and tropical islands to a large mountains land mass. They were escaping as they were bid, running away to fight another day. It sat poorly with them all. He looked over his shoulder feeling somehow so very much older. Was he really fourteen? Had it really been two years? Katara, Sokka, Toph, Haru, Theo, and The Duke all slumbered in Appa's saddle. He vaguely wondered what Katara thought about him since he had kissed her. How would things change? Would they?

In the distance he saw a small red dot. It always seemed to be there. Were they being followed? He urged Appa higher into the clouds for cover. Escaping into exile did not include being recaptured by someone like Azula. The Western Air Temple would not be much farther. It was impossible to get to unless you knew exactly where it was.

Problem arose when Appa could no longer fly with so many people. They landed out of necessity on large flat tundra. Mountains lay far in the distance. Everyone groaned. "Are we walking? All that way?" asked Sokka.

"No," replied Aang. "I know the temple is somewhere around here. Near cliffs or… uhm… it was long ago… it might also be entirely buried by now." He tried to sound cheery, but it came out more like he was just weary. They all were.

Toph took the lead as she would feel the temple structures with her feet likely long before they saw anything. They walked, head hung. Katara's shoulder sagged as they walked in the summer heat. "This is humiliating," she sighed.

Exasperated, Sokka asked, "Do you mean getting thoroughly spanked by the Fire Nation or having to walk all the way to the Western Air Temple?"

"Both…"

* * *

In Ba Sing Se, the dojo continued as it always did. Travahar helped Ling with a daytime class as Mu-Tan finished the last preparations for their escape.

"Faelin, I can't go with you. My absence would be noted. One of the generals will travel with you and some of the students. Once you are out, travel west till you reach the water. Keep the water north of you till you are past it, till you pass the trade posts and some coal mines and mountains. There is a city there, just around the mountain run by the miners." Mu-Tan showed her on a map.

Faelin had grown stronger and healed with the help of a waterbender that took up residence with them in the dojo, and was very much in love with Ling. Her sea-colored eyes regarded the map critically; concerned by the route that was so similar to the one that ended here in her enslavement only now she was traveling back towards the jaws of Azula and Ozai. "I … I don't like it. Where is our destination?"

Mu-Tan pointed to the mountains far north. "I would say the Northern Air Temple, but it has been destroyed. These mountains up here are full of very good places to hide. Take refugees along the way. But you must leave tonight. You need to be past the mining town and at least a good week north before the comet comes. I would suggest the Serpent's Pass, but it is too treacherous and there are too many Fire Nation patrols there."

"What is this place?" she asked softly, still getting used to speaking. It will be a wonderful surprise to see Zuko's face when he realizes she can actually speak. She missed the sharp debates she has had with him. She missed more than that. Her hand rubbed over the small swell of her belly.

Mu-Tan looked to the dot she pointed to a little north of the mining town. "There is an old fort there with some mountain outposts. It used to be a shrine where Qin Maru met to assign training mentors. "It is a good place to stop over. White Lotus holds it now, but most of them will be converging here if all the messages have gotten where they needed. We will send more refugees there. The first loads of people have already left. Travahar and Hwa Lan will get you out tonight. Good luck, Fire Priestess."

Faelin smiled, "I think I will be fine. Are we finishing his rites today?" She referred to Travahar's final rites as Qin Maru. Over the time passed, he finished his training and completed his chakra rites as Zuko had. This afternoon was his final rite as he swears himself to the Order of the Silver Circle, the Qin Maru, where he may or may not be bound to something or someone. As there were no other priests or priestesses, his choices were sacred objects or sacred places, or simply to wait.

"Yes," Mu-Tan beamed with pride for the young man he knew was the rightful prince to Ba Sing Se. He wished Travahar was leaving into safety with Faelin. But Travahar refused to leave the city while people, his people, were still here. "He will be swearing to a spirit object. A box that has been part of his family for generations." At Faelin's expression of confusion he explained. "Travahar has been with a noble family in hiding for some time. This box is his proof of lineage. It represents the two spirits of this land, the Great Earth Dragon and the Sakura Tree Spirit. You know the tree. The king stands as the sword of the people, the protector of the land and those upon it. Only one of the line destined to rule can open the box with the spirits blessing."

"Can he? Open the box?" she asked.

"Yes."

She understood now what Travahar could not leave. Qin Maru to this box is not just to the box, but to two anchoring shrines and their spirits.

Later in the evening, a tired Faelin followed the secret stairs into the basement of the dojo. Travahar earthbended a wall aside to reveal a hidden passage into the sewer system. There awaited a small boat for them. Hwa Lan helped her and Ty-min into the boat. The four of them drifted down the underground canal illuminated green by the natural glowing crystals. The little boat drifted all the way to where it let out to sea. A small group of people gathered, ready to make their own escape with her. She hugged her journal close praying Zuko was safe. And so began her undercover escape into exile.


End file.
